Estella Warren is making one pretty jail bird right now.

The model and Planet of the Apes star landed herself in the slammer after allegedly smashing into three cars in Los Angeles on Monday.

The steering-challenged beauty drove away from the scene, was nailed by cops and ultimately arrested for DUI. And then it really got bad…

Warren, who was driving her Toyota Prius when the incident happened, initially resisted arrest—in other words, kicked a cop—after police caught up with her, but she was eventually cuffed and hauled off to the station after failing a field-sobriety test (go figure) just past midnight.

But that wasn’t the end of her adventure.

When Warren was being booked, she managed to slip her skinny model wrists out of her handcuffs and bolted for the back door of the station, where she tried to escape.

Which, as most people know, is kind of frowned upon by cops.

The Sports Illustrated swimsuit hottie was quickly caught (again) and was rewarded for her efforts by being booked on an additional charge of felony escape. Which brought her rap sheet total up to four for the night: she’s also facing charges on assault, hit and run and, of course, DUI.

Incidentally, while Warren has publicly cited her age as 32, her booking report lists her as 40.  Though in fairness, she can definitely pass for younger.

Her bail has been set at $100,000.

If you’ve been recently arrested for driving under the influence in the Baton Rouge area, an experienced attorney can strategize an appropriate defense for you. Call Carl Barkemeyer, Criminal Defense Attorney — at 225-964-6720 for a free and immediate consultation. Or explore Attorney Barkemeyer’s website, .www.carlbarkemeyer.com

Motley Crue front man Vince Neil pleaded guilty to DUI in Las Vegas on Wednesday, January 26. According to Billboard, the singer will serve 15 days in jail and 15 days of house arrest as part of a plea agreement to avoid being charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence, which could have carried a sentence of six months in jail. 

Neil also received a fine of $585. He was ordered to attend drunken driving abatement school and to view a victim impact video online.

The charges stemmed from an incident in June, when Neil was arrested after Las Vegas authorities received a tip about a drunk driver and pulled him over. Neil failed a field sobriety test and was taken into custody, posting bail shortly thereafter. Ironically, police had already been looking for the Motley Crue front man in connection with a complaint from a woman who claimed that Neil had assaulted her earlier in the evening, grabbing and breaking her camera when she tried to take his picture.

Accompanied by his lawyers, Richard Schonfeld and David Chesnoff, Neil avoided the media by appearing 90 minutes early before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Pro Tem Gerry Zobrist. Media members who arrived for the scheduled 9 AM hearing found that Neil had already appeared, entered his plea and left.

“My understanding is he came in early and they just moved it up,” said court spokeswoman Mary Ann Price.

The re-scheduling of Neil’s appearance, as well as his seemingly light sentence, caused some to speculate about preferential treatment, which attorney David Chesnoff denied. Chesnoff said that he requested the case be moved up because he was due in family court across town on another case.

“There is no preferential treatment,” Chesnoff said. “I got the normal professional courtesy a lawyer gets when he has a scheduling conflict.”

Clark County District Attorney David Roger also denied anything unusual about the proceedings. “He pled guilty to DUI,” Roger said. “The vast majority of people facing a first offense DUI in Nevada don’t face jail time.”

The singer has a long history of alcohol abuse and DUI, but according to law, only certain conditions can be considered in sentencing. Nevada state law dictates that anyone convicted of a second DUI in a seven year period must serve anywhere from ten days to six months in jail. Vince Neil was also arrested for suspicion of DUI in Las Vegas in 2007, but he worked out a deal with prosecutors wherein he pleaded guilty to reckless driving in exchange for them dropping the DUI charge. So this is technically his first DUI conviction in Nevada.

In 1984 Neil pleaded guilty to drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter in an accident that killed his friend Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, the drummer from Hanoi Rocks. In that case Neil served 20 days in jail and agreed to pay 2.5 million dollars in restitution to victims. That conviction is too old to be considered in this new case, and took place in another state.

Source: The Examiner.com

The more DUI convictions a person acquires, the more harsh the penalties. This is an example of what to avoid. Vince Neil’s case could have been much worse if the prior conviction was more recent.

 If you’ve been recently arrested for driving under the influence in the Baton Rouge area, an experienced attorney can strategize an appropriate defense for you. Call Carl Barkemeyer, Criminal Defense Attorney — at 225-964-6720 for a free and immediate consultation. Or explore Attorney Barkemeyer’s website, www.carlbarkemeyer.com.

THIBODAUX — State Police’s “No Refusal” campaign for Labor Day weekend is being billed as a way for law-enforcement to get more drunken drivers off the road and reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

But in the eyes of one of the state’s leading civil-liberties advocates, it is an unnecessary measure that violates drivers’ constitutional rights to privacy and against unreasonable search and seizure.

Alcohol-related crashes in Louisiana resulted in 400 deaths and 6,000 injuries in 2009, according to the state’s Highway Safety Commission. Forty-nine percent of the state’s fatal crashes last year were caused by alcohol.

During a “No Refusal” weekend, troopers can receive a signed search warrant from a local judge to obtain the blood of suspected drunken drivers who have refused a Breathalyzer test. The trooper must first show probable cause for the warrant.

Under normal circumstances, a driver can refuse a Breathalyzer test, but will be charged with DWI and receive a year license suspension for a year.

“Obviously, we need to get drunk drivers off the road,” said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. “But if somebody refuses to take the Breathalyzer they are taken off the road anyway. If the goal is to take people off the road, they don’t need to do this.”

“No Refusal” campaigns are being used by agencies across Louisiana, as well as other states, to strengthen criminal prosecutions against alleged drunken drivers and deter drinking and driving.

State Police officials, district judges and district attorneys have discussed the program and have determined that is “legal and proper under the circumstances,” said Capt. Darrin Naquin, commander of State Police Troop C in Gray, which patrols state highways in five parishes including Lafourche and Terrebonne.

“It’s another piece of evidence that helps us build our case against intoxicated drivers,” Naquin said, adding defendants have the right to challenge their cases in court.

Such a challenge has already taken place in Texas, where a woman successfully fought her DWI case on the basis that an emergency medical technician rather than a state-mandated physician or nurse drew her blood. Opponents of the law in Texas say the law does not account for diabetics or hemophiliacs.

One of Esman’s chief concerns with the “No Refusal” policy is what happens with the blood from alleged drunken drivers after it is drawn, such as where it is stored, for how long and if it is destroyed. Esman also raised objections to using the blood for any other criminal investigations.

“They may or may not have probable cause to test you for alcohol or drugs but they don’t have probable cause to test you for anything else,” she said.

The alleged drunken driver’s blood also gives police access to medical information they likely wouldn’t want accessed by police, Esman added.

A second concern Esman has is that judges will pre-determine that a search warrant is needed without making the trooper explain why a warrant is necessary.

“It appears to be an assembly line review,” she said. “That’s a concern. Hopefully, the magistrate reviews the facts of each case.”
Naquin disagreed with Esman’s assessment.

“This is not a gimme that judges will sign the search warrants,” he said.

State Police are testing for drugs and alcohol, not DNA, and the blood kits will be destroyed after a certain period of time, Naquin added. How soon the blood kits would be destroyed was not immediately known.

Obtaining and storing of blood from a suspected drunken driver is no different than the process that takes place after a critical or fatal crash, where state law requires blood to be drawn from both drivers, Troop C Master Trooper Bryan Zeringue said.

The blood kit is tagged and logged into evidence at the State Police Crime Lab in Baton Rouge, where it is then analyzed.
Questions surrounding police taking blood and DNA samples are similar those raised about fingerprinting years ago, Tulane University criminologist Peter Scharf said. Today, fingerprinting is an accepted law-enforcement technique for solving crimes.
A public dialogue is needed about the constitutionality of programs like “No Refusal,” Scharf said.

“We’re always tempted to tilt toward giving police more power to solve a problem and that may not be the best way to do it,” he said.
Lafourche Chief Judge John LeBlanc did not return a phone call Friday morning.

If you’ve been recently arrested for driving under the influence in the Baton Rouge area, an experienced attorney can strategize an appropriate defense for you. Call Carl Barkemeyer, Criminal Defense Attorney — at 225-964-6720 for a free and immediate consultation. Or explore Attorney Barkemeyer’s website, www.carlbarkemeyer.com.

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested a man on DWI and other counts after he told them he did not want to take a field sobriety test because “he couldn’t see straight.”

The man was intercepted in the Rita area of Lockport about 5 p.m. after the Sheriff’s Office received complaints about a Dodge Dakota pickup peeling out and being driven recklessly in the area., according to the statement.

It is a misconception among the public that the subject must perform field sobriety tests if asked. You have the right to refuse to take field sobriety tests.  Field sobriety tests include the HGN test (“follow my pen”), walk-and-turn, one-legged stand, and alphabet recital test. These tests only serve as evidence that will be used to convict you in your criminal trial for DWI.

If you’ve been recently arrested for driving under the influence in the Baton Rouge area, an experienced attorney can strategize an appropriate defense for you. Call Carl Barkemeyer, Criminal Defense Attorney — at 225-964-6720 for a free and immediate consultation. Or explore Attorney Barkemeyer’s website, www.carlbarkemeyer.com.