Last year, 24,000 cars were impounded at California checkpoints for the maximum of 30 days and critics say the practice is done to raise revenue for local governments. Statewide, the checkpoints collected last year an estimated $40 million in towing fees and police fines statewide. The article raises the question whether the seizure of property is fair and legal. Later this year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will consider a challenge to the constitutionality of California’s 30-day impound law.
Archive for February, 2010
Sacramento Kings forward Andres Nocioni has pleaded no contest to drunken driving and will serve two days of community service.
Attorney William Portanova entered the misdemeanor plea Monday in Sacramento County Superior Court on behalf of Nocioni, who was not present.
Nocioni was arrested about 2 a.m. Nov. 5 when a police officer noticed his car weaving in downtown Sacramento, hours after the Kings had lost a home game to the Atlanta Hawks.
Portanova says his client wants to “take his medicine and move on.”
As part of his sentence, Nocioni will serve two days in a work program operated by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. He also must complete a three-month alcohol class, pay a $480 fine and court penalties and serve three years’ probation.
A California investigation has found that sobriety checkpoints have caught more unlicensed motorists than drunks, creating a cash cow for local police departments that impound vehicles — mostly from minority drivers and often from illegal immigrants. But the 30-day seizures may be illegal.
In mounting such operations, police officers also racked up tens of millions of dollars in overtime pay.
The investigation, by California Watch and the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley, says that last year, local police earned about $40 million from fines and towing fees, which cities split with tow companies. And cops collected $30 million in overtime — paid for by the federal government — for staffing the DUI checkpoints.
Other findings:
• Sobriety checkpoints frequently screen traffic in or near Latino neighborhoods. In cities with majority Latino populations, police are seizing cars at three times the rate of cities with small minority populations.
• Impounds appear to defy a 2005 federal appellate court ruling that police cannot seize vehicles just because the driver is unlicensed. More than 24,000 cars and trucks were impounded at checkpoints last year, even though only 3,200 motorists were arrested for drunken driving.
• Police departments frequently overstaff checkpoints with officers, all of whom earn overtime.
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.
The driver who was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and felony hit-and-run on Jan. 31, had her bail amount increased to $175,000 and was released from custody on Monday.
Sacramento State graduate student Sanjay Patel was identified as the victim of the crash on Folsom Boulevard near the south side of campus. Patel was taken to the UC Davis Medical Center immediately after the crash and is now in fair condition.
The driver, Amira Fakira, is being charged with four felony charges, including two counts of driving under the influence and two counts of hit-and-run where a person is injured. Fakira was also charged with two misdemeanors for hit-and-run where property is damaged and a dangerous drug offense.
Patel, an international electrical engineering graduate student, was riding his bicycle when the suspected driver allegedly weaved across two lanes of traffic into the bike lane, hitting Patel and dragging him a quarter mile.
“The guy was under the vehicle. He was looking back, his bike split in half. He couldn’t do anything,” said Johnathan Hobson, a bystander who stopped Fakira at a red light by reaching in an open window and grabbing her keys.
Hobson and his wife, Lupe Zavala, received a certificate of commendation Feb. 3 at the California Highway Patrol area office in Rancho Cordova, according to News 10.
“I thought he was dead,” Zavala said of the accident scene. “He wasn’t moving. I came closer and I heard him trying to talk.”
Preetham Kumar, interim graduate coordinator of the engineering department, visited Patel at the hospital last week. He said Patel has already had back surgery and will be undergoing surgery on one of his legs.
“We were very happy he was able to make it,” Kumar said. “I was really shocked. The nature of the accident was pretty bad.”
Kumar said Patel’s family in India were notified of the accident by the Office of Global Education at Sac State. Some of his family members are expected to visit him soon.
The next hearing for Fakira will be on March 15 the Sacramento County Courthouse.
A former Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy who is facing charges in connection with a September auto crash in which she plowed through a Natomas Starbucks and injured a woman was arrested again Saturday afternoon on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Lisa Gargano, a nine-year veteran with the Sheriff’s Department before her termination Jan. 30, was involved in an early afternoon minor collision in the parking lot of a Natomas shopping center, according to Sacramento Police Sgt. Norm Leong.
No one was injured, and Gargano, 37, was alone in her car.
She was arrested on suspicion of two misdemeanor offenses, including driving under the influence.
Gargano was assigned to a Sheriff’s Department patrol station in the Foothill Farms area and was off duty when she drove her car into the Starbucks in September.
An elderly woman suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, but she was sent to a hospital.
At the time, Gargano was arrested on felony charges of driving under the influence. Court records show she will return to court March 4 in that case.
After the crash, law enforcement sources and her own neighbors detailed to The Bee Gargano’s long ordeal with prescription painkillers – which she took because of work injuries – and at least one attempt at drug rehabilitation.
In October 2005, Gargano reported that a man had broken into her Carmichael home and attempted to sexually assault her, which prompted a full-scale department response: K9 units, detectives, patrol units, a helicopter and then-Undersheriff John McGinness.
No suspects were found, and after an investigation Gargano confessed the attack could have been a drug-induced hallucination.
The department dismissed the incident as a medical issue, and Gargano was not disciplined.
After Gargano’s arrest in September, McGinness said that deputies with substance-abuse issues related to alcohol or prescribed drugs who are able to perform their duties can remain employed if they go into rehabilitation and submit to random testing.
If they fail to complete rehabilitation, they can be fired.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Curran confirmed that Gargano was fired Jan. 30.
She was still in jail Saturday night and unavailable for comment.
SACRAMENTO – Modesto ranks eleventh in a new survey released by Men’s Health Magazine revealing the drunkest cities in America.
According to the list, Fresno is the drunkest city in the nation, while Sacramento is ranked 20th.
Five cities in the top 20 ranked by the magazine are located in California.
Boston ranked at the nation’s soberest city, followed by Yonkers, New York.
The magazine relied upon death rates from liver disease, drunk driving crashes and the number of DUI arrests in a particular area.
An appeals court says an Orange County family can proceed with a lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol over graphic crash photos that were leaked by the agency.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana on Monday reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit against the CHP and two of its employees for leaking the photos of a decapitated teenager that ended up on the Internet.
In the ruling, the court said the family of Nicole “Nikki” Catsouras can pursue damages for negligence, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress.
The CHP admitted that two employees e-mailed nine photos of Nikki’s body to friends and family for apparent shock value on Halloween day in 2006.
An attorney for one of the employees says he is considering an appeal.
SACRAMENTO, CA – Officials arrested a man for driving while drunk after he caused a head-on collision early Sunday morning, according to authorities.
California Highway Patrol spokesman Michael Panlilio said the unidentified man was driving a silver Lexus heading eastbound on Elverta Road near Levee Road around 12:30 a.m. He swerved into the westbound lanes, colliding head-on with a Honda Civic.
A green Kia travelling behind couldn’t stop in time and subsequently crashed into the Lexus, said Panlilio. That driver was okay.
The woman driving the Honda was trapped inside the car and firefighters cut open the vehicle to save her. Panlilio said she was taken to UC Davis Medical center with a broken leg.
CHP officials arrested the drunk driver of the Lexus, who now faces felony DUI charges. He was taken to Mercy San Juan hospital with major injuries but was expected to survive.
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SACRAMENTO, CA – A man who witnessed a hit and run crash that seriously injured a bicyclist snatched the suspect’s keys from the ignition of her SUV at a red light, according to the California Highway Patrol.
CHP Sgt. Chris Lane said the bicyclist was struck Sunday at 7:20 p.m. on Folsom Boulevard under the Highway 50 overpass and dragged a quarter mile to Norcade Circle. The white Ford Explorer then struck another vehicle on the street, which tore off the Explorer’s front bumper. The victim was dislodged from underneath the SUV as the driver made a three-point turn back toward Folsom Boulevard, witnesses said.
Lane said the woman driving the SUV continued west for another three-quarters of a mile before stopping for a red light at Watt Avenue, where the crash witness grabbed the car keys and detained the driver until a CHP officer arrived.
The 24-year-old man who stopped the SUV told CHP officers he did not want to speak to the media or be identified publicly. His wife stayed at the scene to help the victim while he chased the Explorer.
While praising the driver’s actions, Lane said it’s generally a good idea for witnesses to avoid direct contact and to call 911.
The Explorer was reportedly weaving across the two traffic lanes of westbound Folsom Boulevard before it drifted into the bike lane and hit the cyclist, according to the CHP.
The victim, Sanjay Patel, 26, was taken to the UC Davis Medical Center with serious injuries. Co-workers at the Subway sandwich shop near the crash site said Patel had just closed the shop and was riding home. A hospital spokesperson said Patel remained in serious condition Monday.
The SUV driver, Amira Fakira, 23, was arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run, and felony drunken driving. Sacramento County Jail records indicated Fakira was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail on charges of felony hit and run and suspected drunken driving. Her arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in a jailhouse courtroom.