6.22.2009

Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Noble Sentenced to Jail for Seattle DUI

It appears as though the Scott Noble saga is over. If you remember, Scott Noble is the (now ex) King County Assessor who a few months ago, after drinking several glasses of wine, entered Interstate 5 going the wrong direction and collided with a car traveling in the proper direction. At the time of the crash Noble was apparently trying to make a u-turn on the Interstate to get going in the right direction.

On Friday Noble was sentenced to 8 months in jail, though he will be able to get out of jail during working hours as a condition of his sentence (a friend has offered him a sales job at a massage therapy store he owns), after pleading guilty to one count of vehicular assault (this is essentially a DUI in which a person is injured).

The Washington Attorney General's office handled the case, as would be expected when a King County elected official is accused of the crime, and requested a 9 month sentence for Noble. Noble's Seattle traffic lawyer asked for a three month sentence, with work release. The judge split the baby, in essence, giving more jail time but allowing for the work release.

As a DUI lawyer generally, I think Noble's attorney did the best he possibly could. With the amount of publicity that centered on the case and the lack of sympathy given to Noble (he admitted to being an alcoholic of over 20 years), it would have been difficult to do any better than was done. In many cases like this, as a traffic attorney the focus is on negotiating the best deal possible. Here, the best deal was getting one of the vehicular assault charges dropped and having the opportunity to argue for work release with no objection from the prosecution.

Hopefully in the end Noble will be able to complete his sentence, get some treatment, and get his life in order. He appeared to feel pretty bad about his actions, so maybe this was the event that will get his life turned around. Stick around the Traffic Attorney Seattle Blog to stay up to date on traffic law!

Related Posts:
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Exercise Your Rights

Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Subpoena the Cop?

6.08.2009

Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Cop Gets Pass for DUI

It's funny how many police officers can talk out of both sides of their face. For example, in one instance they can be complete blowhards, immovable on any issue, willing to acknowledge any lenience whatsoever for a suspected criminal. And then they realize their suspected criminal is a fellow police officer, and everything changes. You don't hear about it often (my guess is because it doesn't get reported that often - and it is highly likely that it just doesn't happen that often), but when it does, as a Seattle traffic attorney, it makes your skin crawl if for no other reason than I have a laundry list of clients that if just allowed to walk home or get a ride (or even drive home because they weren't actually drunk) that would have been the end of it.

It gets even more interesting when the prosecutor's office gets in the game, although the article I grabbed this story from makes it appear as though they tried their best (although with the facts it makes it hard to understand how they lost this case).

The story I'm referring to comes from Roseville California, where a Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy was given a walk after he was stopped for DUI. You can read the full story here, but I'll give you some of the details and let you think about this case for yourself.

The deputy was driving erratically when he was pulled over. Upon being pulled over he was questioned and asked to participate in field sobriety tests, which he failed. After that, he was given a portable breath test, where he blew .16, twice the legal limit. After that, he repeatedly apologized to the officers and asked them to give him a break. And you know what, they did. They drove him home, dropped him off, and left it alone. He was only charged with DUI when a local news station picked up the story and broke it to the public.

With those facts, which are failed sobriety tests, a PBT of .16, and an pseudo admission, the prosecutor couldn't convince a jury he was guilty of DUI (might be something to said about the quality of the DUI lawyer, but it might also be the effort of the prosecutor's office). The jury hung, the case was dismissed, and the prosecutor's office has decided not to refile. I guess sometimes it just pays to be a cop.

Enjoy reading the Traffic Attorney Seattle Blog? Let us know!

Related Posts:
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Subpoena the Cop?

Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Exercise Your Rights