Where so many others have found despair, Dominic Cooke found opportunity.

Opportunity to help and opportunity to heal.

As he lay in a Sacramento hospital room following a car accident in December 2001, paralyzed from the waist down, the former Jesuit High School and Cal rugby star couldn’t imagine life in a wheelchair.

Now, from his wheelchair, he’s making a bigger impact than he ever could have on the pitch.

On Saturday, during the 37th Eppie’s Great Race, Cooke, 30, will compete with fellow paraplegic Matt Strugar-Fritsch, 27, and Jon Bik, a 36-year-old above-the-knee amputee, as “Team TFO.”

“After my accident, exercise was the best remedy,” Cooke said. “It has been the best thing for me.”

Since his accident, Cooke has participated in myriad activities one wouldn’t normally associate with a paraplegic, such as skydiving, paragliding and swimming.

“I’m always looking for things people tell me I can’t do,” Cooke said.

TFO, which stands for Try for Others, is the nonprofit organization Cooke formed in 2005 to support athletes who have suffered life-altering injuries and sponsor them for adaptive athletic competition. Money is raised through private donations, sponsorships and the TFO clothing line.

“There are two stages to recovery: immediate assistance (in the hospital),” Cooke said, “but when you get out, the recovery truly begins. That’s where Team TFO comes in.”

TFO is sponsoring four other athletes with physical disabilities in Saturday’s race.

“It’s a great thing that (Cooke) has done,” race founder Eppie Johnson said. “If he’s got the energy to put that together, I have to give him credit.”

Eppie’s Great Race, which takes place on the American River Parkway between Sunrise Boulevard and Sacramento State’s Guy West Bridge, consists of a 5.82-mile run, a 12.5-mile bicycle ride and a 6.35-mile paddle.

The race will feature more than 2,000 athletes as organizers anticipate an all-time participation record. The previous record was set in 1988, when 2,006 people participated in the no-swim triathlon.

“Five-point-eight (miles) is going to kick my (butt),” said Bik, who will run the first stage. “But if it raises awareness for this cause, it’s worth it.”

In January 2005, Bik fell 40 feet from a power pole while working for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, tearing his left ACL and meniscus while his right leg was dislocated at the knee. Following five unsuccessful surgeries, the right leg was amputated above the knee.

Ten months after the accident, Bik, sporting a prosthetic running leg, participated in the Run to Feed the Hungry. In 2007 and 2008, he finished second in the Triathlon World Championships in the above-the-knee amputee division and won the U.S. title in 2008.

Strugar-Fritsch shattered two vertebrae in his back after falling from a 10-foot drop while mountain biking in Michigan on Aug. 30, 2003.

Cooke believes that Eppie’s Great Race, which has always included an adaptive division, is the perfect avenue to promote TFO’s cause.

“We want to integrate adaptive sports everywhere,” Cooke said. “We want to show people that these are athletes just like you. They just have a different situation.”

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SACRAMENTO – In his first television interview since a DUI conviction that led to his public outing as a gay man, California Senator Roy Ashburn apologized to the gay community and acknowledged that he lived a double life.

“The hypocrisy is true, I lived a double life,” Asburn said in an interview broadcast by News10 Monday evening. “The Republican Party is the party that believes in limited government and individual freedom. The government shouldn’t get involved in private lives.”

Ashburn was arrested for a driving while intoxicated offense March 3rd. The arrest took place just blocks from a popular gay nightclub, and a male passenger reported in the vehicle led to speculation about Ashburn’s sexual orientation.
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FOLSOM, CA – Four teens were injured, three seriously, in a rollover crash in Folsom late Wednesday night in which police say alcohol and drugs appeared to play a role.

Officer Jason Browning with the Folsom Police Department said officers responded to several calls received at 11:40 p.m. that a sports utility vehicle had overturned on Heritage Place. Browning said officers found three teens, two boys and a girl, who had been ejected from a crushed 1997 red Ford Explorer. Browning said the driver, a 17-year-old boy, was still belted in the driver’s seat clutching the steering wheel.

The four youths were transported to area hospitals for medical care.

As officers investigated, they found broken bottles of whiskey, marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia scattered along the path the SUV took as it rolled several times on vacant, sloped home lots, Browning said.

The Folsom Police Major Accident Reconstruction Team was called out and determined the SUV had been speeding on northbound Heritage Place when the driver appeared to swerve onto the sidewalk on the east side of the road and lost control, Browning said. Tire marks suggested the SUV then crossed over the center of the road and plowed over the sidewalk on the west side and down the empty lots.

Browning said the driver, who did not have a license and appeared to be the only one wearing a seatbelt, suffered minor injuries. The teen was arrested for driving under the influence causing serious injury and booked into Sacramento Juvenile Hall.

Due to the ages of the teens, 16 and 17 years old, their names were not released.

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After two DUIs, Jose Angel Becerra had two options. One was to have his license suspended.

The other was to change his life so he could continue to drive his 10-year-old son to school.

He chose his 10-year-old son.

Months after he earned his second alcohol-related conviction, Becerra voluntarily installed an ignition interlock device. He hasn’t had a drink since.

Beginning July 1, people convicted of a DUI in Tulare County won’t get the choice. They will be required by law to install the equipment.

The pilot program focuses on counties with high numbers of drinking problems. Tulare County was most likely chosen because it adds a rural setting with high DUI conviction rates, Department of Motor Vehicles officials say.

The law also affects Sacramento, Los Angeles and Alameda counties.

“Alcohol has been around for a very long time, and we are still trying to find a way to handle it,” said Superior Court Judge Walter Gorelick. “The problem now is people are getting into cars with the potential of killing someone.”

Becerra contacted the DMV earlier this year and decided to install the Smart Start device in his Nissan in April. The Avenal man says he is happy the program is starting, saying he hopes others will learn from their mistakes.

“This has changed everything for me,” Becerra said. “I will install one in my son’s car when he can drive so I can sleep at night and feel safe.”

The DMV estimates that more than 3,000 offenders will be subject to the new law in the first year in Tulare County. That is more than 30 times the number of offenders who currently have ignition interlock devices installed.

It’s estimated that more than 45,000 Californians will be required to install devices in the first year of the pilot law, which runs through 2016.

The question is, will the device work to deter drinking and driving?

“The alcohol classes don’t seem to work that much. We get a lot of repeat offenders,” said supervising probation officer Chris Dushane. “But this might actually work. It’s not a bad thing.”

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North Bay Assemblyman Jared Huffman is sponsoring a bill to get tough with repeat drunk drivers. “Melody’s Law” is named for Melody Osheroff, a 9 year-old Novato girl who was run down and killed by an intoxicated motorcyclist with eight previous DUI convictions. Huffman’s law would prevent anyone with three convictions from owning or registering a car.

It’s odd. In Florida they are again making it possible for a fourth time offender to regain license reinstatement, but in California they are trying to make it impossible for a 3rd time offender to drive again. Florida lawmakers along with MADD’s support felt that when a drivers license is taken forever they will almost always drive illegally and drunk again. The new law requires the installation of an ignition interlock device.

Motorists convicted of drunk driving will have to test their breath for alcohol before they start their vehicles under a pilot program set to begin in July in Los Angeles County and three other California counties.

DUI offenders convicted after July 1 will be required to install an ignition-interlock device that would prevent vehicles from starting if traces of alcohol are detected after drivers blow into a tube connected to the machine.  The program also goes into effect in Alameda, Sacramento and Tulare counties and runs through 2016.

Under the program, a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.03 or less will be required to start the car. The legal limit in California is 0.08.

The breath test would create additional monitoring of DUI offenders at no cost to taxpayers, said Arianna Smith, a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the bill that created the program

Smith estimated that the cost to drivers would be $75 to install the device and about $50 a month to monitor their activity. Low-income offenders would pay less, according to Smith.

First-time offenders would have to use the device for five months. A second offense would require the driver to use the device for a year.

Smith said New Mexico and other states have had success with similar programs.

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Three drunken-driving convictions, even spread out over a quarter-century, are usually enough for a license suspension and a stretch in jail. They might also affect a driver’s teaching credential.

That’s what happened to Shirley Broney, an Orange County elementary school teacher with a spotless record in the classroom but not behind the wheel.

According to a state appeals court in Sacramento, Broney had DUI convictions in 1987, 1997 and 2001. The last conviction came after police arrested her in a parking garage, where she was heading out with a blood-alcohol level of 0.25 percent, more than three times the legal limit. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail, but was allowed to serve her time at home and in the classroom while wearing an ankle bracelet.

The state Commission on Teacher Credentialing began an investigation of Broney, who had obtained her certificate in 1997. At an administrative hearing, her principal described her as talented and dedicated, and Broney’s substance abuse counselor said Broney had learned her lesson and wasn’t likely to drink and drive again.

But the commission said Broney had shown unprofessional conduct and should lose her credential for 60 days. The commission let her continue teaching, though, by suspending its order and putting her on probation for three years.

Broney appealed, saying her past transgressions as a driver had nothing to do with her fitness to teach. But the Third District Court of Appeal said it wasn’t convinced that her fifth-grade pupils could be insulated easily from their teacher’s outside misconduct.

For one thing, the court said, Broney had to wear an ankle bracelet in class for a month, which would have “adversely impacted (her) ability to earn the respect of her students.” The youngsters are at an impressionable age, and despite the assurances of the teacher and her counselor, the court said, Broney has already shown a willingness to endanger public safety and there’s no guarantee that she won’t do it again.

There’s been no comment from Broney’s lawyer, who could appeal to the state Supreme Court.

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The death of two people by a man convicted of at least four previous DUIs has raised questions in Tulare County as to whether current laws and procedures are working.

This week, Tulare County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kalashian apologized to a Sacramento family. He told them that the system let them down, leading to the loss of their loved ones at the hands of a drunken driver.

Salvador Leon, 38, of Porterville had at least seven known aliases, with convictions under the name Salvador Carrillo as well as several other names, according to a probation report. He obtained a driver’s license because of a major glitch in the system, not requiring fingerprints for those applying for a license and being unable to track them in the state database, a local official says.

“It’s a flaw, a major problem with how we track DUI offenders,” said Christie Myer, assistant chief probation officer.

Leon collided with a sport utility vehicle while driving drunk on Highway 99 last year, killing Vilai Her and his 7-month-old son. He was sentenced Thursday to 35 years to life in prison.

Tulare County prosecutes an average of more than 3,200 DUI offenses every year. While local law enforcement officials have increased checkpoints throughout the county, the ability for a judge to sentence repeat offenders to higher jail terms remains a problem because of state laws, local officials say.

“It’s a major societal problem and we are trying our best, but a judge can only sentence within the letter of the law,” said Judge Walter Gorelick, who works out of the Tulare County courts in Tulare. “Is the system broken?

“No. Can it be made better? Yes.”

The typical sentence for a first offense is less than 10 days, Gorelick said. Sentences do not become significant until the fourth offense, a felony, if all offenses are within a 10-year period. If they are not, only those within the period are considered for sentencing.

To crack down, the state Legislature is implementing a pilot program beginning July 1, requiring all people convicted of a DUI to have Breathalyzer equipment installed in their vehicles ≠≠≠- at the offender’s cost.

# First offense: five months.

# Second offense: One year.

# Third offense: Two years.

Tulare County is one of only four counties in the state implementing the equipment requirement. Los Angeles, Sacramento and Alameda counties are the others. “A lot of people don’t take DUIs seriously,” Assistant District Attorney Shani Jenkins said. “Many times they don’t take it seriously until someone is hurt or killed.”

Kalashian, who was unable to comment on the case outside of court because the case is still open for future hearing dates, told the court Thursday that someone with four prior DUI convictions should never have been allowed on the road. However, California vehicle law says otherwise.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles reinstates a license once the offender has completed the required sessions of DUI classes and a 12-step program.

Programs vary by offense:

# First offense: A three-to-nine-month program, depending on blood-alcohol level.

# Two offenses or more: An 18-month program.

Though programs are set in place, many of those ordered to attend by the court don’t take them seriously, according to several program participants.

“A lot of these people walk in, get their card signed and then don’t pay attention or walk outside,” said Sandra, 42, a member of a local Alcoholics Anonymous program. “It’s up to the person to take it seriously and change their life. These programs work, but it’s up to the person to be successful.”

It’s not clear whether Leon participated in programs or sought help for what his family called a sickness. However, his attorney, William Pernik, said he never received the help he needed.

“[Leon] is an alcoholic and it’s a debilitating disease,” he said. “The loss of life is tragic. For too long we have focused on punishment rather than treatment.”

Some people blame probation officials for not checking on repeat offenders, while others blame the DMV and courts. But many currently in court-ordered programs blame the person behind the wheel.

“People have the option to not drink and drive. Alcoholism is a disease, but it’s up to people to get help. They have to want it,” said Dianna, 34, a member of a local Alcoholics Anonymous program. “Those who don’t want help need to be incarcerated.”

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A man whose first driving under the influence-related offense involved the death of a Sacramento motorcyclist in 1988 has been sentenced to six years in state prison for a sixth DUI conviction, says the Placer County District Attorney’s Office.

In sentencing Peter Joseph Farrell, 43, of Oregon, Placer County Superior Court Judge Mark S. Curry said it appeared “he has not learned his lesson, adding, “he continues to commit crimes that jeopardize the public’s safety.”

Besides the Sacramento DUI-related involuntary manslaughter conviction which sent Farrell to prison for 32 months, he had DUI offenses in Oregon in 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2005.

Farrell’s blood alcohol level measured .22 — .08 is considered legally drunk — when he was pulled over on Highway 65 in Lincoln in July, 2009, according to the prosecution.

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