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DUI Charges Against 54 Dropped Prosecutors say a Polk County sheriff's deputy may have taken shortcuts in handling investigations. By Jason Geary THE LEDGER Prosecutors have abandoned charges against 54 people accused of driving under the influence, citing concerns about a deputy's shortcuts in writing reports and conducting blood alcohol tests. Deputy Tex Thomas has made about 124 arrests for DUI since he began working last year for the Polk County Sheriff's Office. In a deposition, Thomas spoke about preparing reports by cutting-and-pasting words from previous DUI reports as a "template" rather than starting with a blank page. Prosecutors also...

Was wondering if anyone had any real information as to whether Ted Kennedy had ever actually been awarded anything from MADD at the state or national level. I have found info that Mark Shriver had, but not Ted. Need to verify if he ever has, any real info would be of great help. Have spent a couple hours researching already at various sources.

Beer summit sparks fight between MADD and alcohol lobby @ 2:37 pm by Eric Zimmermann President Obama's beer summit might have created a media frenzy, but not everyone was excited about the message it sent about drinking. Placing alcohol at the center of a political firestorm has sparked a war of words between Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the pro-alcohol lobby. Nancy Raynor, the President of the Delaware chapter of MADD, told radio station WDEL this weekend that the beer summit may send an inappropriate signal to young people. "It's a well known fact that young people tend to...

A former Muscatine County judge has pleaded guilty to his third drunken driving charge. James Weaver, 55, of Blue Grass, Iowa, is set to be sentenced Aug. 6, court documents indicate. Iris Frost, the case’s special prosecutor, will ask for incarceration, a letter in Weaver’s file indicates. Weaver’s attorney, John Wunder, could not be reached for comment. Weaver was arrested in March. He had a blood-alcohol-content level more than two times the legal limit for driving in Iowa, court documents say. Weaver had two prior drunken-driving convictions from 2002 and 2004. He received a disability retirement as a judge based...

A word of caution before you head out for the long Memorial Day weekend: It's also No-Refusal Weekend. Which means? Well, if Dallas police pull suspect you're drinking and driving, you'll be stuck with a butterfly needle attached to a vacuum-packed container, and two vials' worth of your blood will taken and tested. And, no, you can't refuse the test; hence the name, as discussed in our cover story on the very subject last month.

President Obama's troubling nominee to head the National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationEarlier this month, President Barack Obama nominated Mothers Against Drunk Driving CEO Chuck Hurley to head up the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).Hurley's pending appointment is bad news for social drinkers, motorists, and anyone interested in freedom of movement and less hassle on the roadways. Hurley is an anti-alcohol zealot, and a longtime proponent of just about any highway regulation that's sold under the guise of public safety. He's a supporter of primary seat belt laws, which allow police to pull motorists over solely for seat belt infractions....

WASHINGTON (AP) - A top official with Mothers Against Drunk Driving is President Barack Obama's choice to lead the federal agency that oversees safety and fuel efficiency standards for automakers. Chuck Hurley was nominated today to become administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He's served as MADD's chief executive officer since 2005 and has worked for the National Safety Council and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The state senate has approved a measure calling for sobriety checkpoints.Professor David Hanson of the State University of New York in Potsdam says Texas is not alone in banning checkpoints. "A number of individual states have decided sobriety checkpoints violate their own state constitutions." Many believe the checkpoints violate the U.S. Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, but Houston mom Valerie Lalime, whose 13-year-old daughter Lilly was killed by a drunk driver, says checkpoints work during holiday periods. "The research has shown that there is a decrease in the number of drunk driving accidents." Bill Lewis of MADD says...

That Daryl Fleck , 55, may not have intended to drive when he was found sleeping drunk in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, parked in his home lot at 11:30 p.m. “is immaterial,” Judge Terri Stoneburner argued in a Minnesota Appeals Court decision that upheld Fleck’s drunk driving conviction. Under Minnesota’s Driving While Impaired statute, 169A.20, it is illegal for any person with a blood-alcohol concentration in excess of .08 to “drive, operate, or be in physical control of any motor vehicle.” Stoneburner argues in accordance with State v. Starfield : “Physical control is meant to cover situations where...

Surrounded by flashing red and blue lights, the man in red leather sandals lifted one foot off the ground and waited as the deputy kept time. Then, finding that the man had failed the sobriety test, the deputy pulled the man's hands behind his back and shackled them. The man stood in a strip mall parking lot where he pulled over after an undercover deputy noticed him swerving in and out of his lane on Military Trail and he struck the median, said Sheriff's Cpl. Scott Yoder, who assisted with the arrest. The undercover deputy charged the driver with cocaine...

She quietly pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced on the day President Obama was inaugurated. But it may be another two years before Cook County Judge Sheila McGinnis is disciplined by the authorities who oversee Illinois judges - if they discipline her, according to the executive director of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board. McGinnis on Tuesday dodged a potential one-year jail term when she admitted drunkenly crashing her Chevrolet sport utility vehicle into the back of a family-of-four's minivan May 9 in Tinley Park. With the attention of the Southland and the world focused on Washington, D.C., Judge...

Drew University, like many colleges, is working harder to deter underage drinking, but that didn't stop students younger than 21 from drinking heavily at campus parties Labor Day weekend. "The parties are in dorms, on top of buildings, wherever people find an ample place where they're not going to be bothered," said 18-year-old Dean Shtainhorn of Millburn, who admitted to experimenting with alcohol. The Madison campus is not unlike colleges across the country dealing with the problem of underage alcohol consumption and binge drinking. That is why Drew University president Robert Weisbuch said he joined the Amethyst Initiative, a national...

The DUI Exception to the Constitution” Posted by Lawrence Taylor on May 9th, 2005 In the course of various postings concerning MADD, I have received emails suggesting that they are a civic-minded organization which does not deserve my criticisms. As I have said on many occasions, I believe them to be a well-intentioned group of "true believers" — who, like most zealots, have a rigid and narrow focus and are ignorant of the harm they cause to others. And in other posts I have tried to explain the nature of that harm. Many years ago, I was invited to give...

CHICAGO – Ann Marie Getz had already been twice convicted of driving under the influence when, behind the wheel of her Lincoln Continental and allegedly drunk, she ran a stop sign this month in central Illinois and smashed into another car. A mother and two kids in the Chevy Impala that Getz hit died. And yet the 43-year-old Streator woman was able to present a valid Illinois driver's license to investigators.

At age 18, an American can enlist in the military, vote, sign a contract, get married, have an operation -- hey, in California, a 14-year-old can have an abortion without telling her parents -- but he cannot buy a beer. Not legally, anyway. It makes absolutely no sense, and it is shameful that my generation, which won the right to vote at age 18, continues to infantilize people who are allowed to make life-and-death decisions on every issue, save one. We believe in rights -- except for college-age kids -- even if they are serving in the military. Enter the...

What happens when presidents from more than 100 of the nation's best-known colleges call on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18? Well, a brigade of hyperbolic mommies start screaming at them, that's what. In the Amethyst Initiative, college presidents have offered a rational, if counterintuitive, plan. Let's stop treating young adults like wards of the state. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (naturally) replied: No debate allowed. There is plenty of empirical evidence suggesting that the drinking age of 21 is counterproductive. To begin with, it bars parents from educating their own children about alcohol and, like...

If you’re not a convicted drunk driver, should you still be required to have an in-car breathalyzer fitted (at your expense, ‘natch) to your next new vehicle? Apparently, some automakers — including GM and Toyota — think so. They and a few others are working together under the auspices of something called the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, which is a $10 million federal “research program” that is trying to develop just such technology for mass introduction a few years from now. At the moment, the only people who have to deal with (and pay for) in-car Breathalyzers are...

Heather Squires was the designated driver. Never exactly a fun thing, but a college buddy of her husband's was driving up from Tucson to celebrate his acceptance into law school. So when her husband, Jason, asked, Heather said yes. It's not safe to be the designated driver these days, either. At Chuy's in Tempe, Heather's brother and her husband and the soon-to-be-law-school student knocked off four pitchers of beer. Everybody was having a great time. Around 9:30 p.m., they decided to head home. So they piled into Jason Squires' new pickup truck. As planned, Heather drove. They didn't get very...

El Camino teens face heavy emotions brought about by drunken-driving dramatization OCEANSIDE – It was an elaborate hoax, but 36 students at El Camino High pulled it off with potentially life-saving consequences. The result was a soberingly realistic dramatization about the dangers of drinking and driving, delivered with surprising professionalism. Many juniors and seniors were driven to tears – a few to near hysterics – May 26 when a uniformed police officer arrived in several classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident. The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on...

Anyone who refuses to submit to a blood-alcohol breath test this weekend will be required to have his or her blood drawn, authorities said Tuesday in reminding residents of a new program scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Friday. District Attorney Susan Reed said the ‘No Refusal Accepted' program is scheduled to continue through 7 a.m. Tuesday. A registered nurse will be on duty both at the San Antonio magistrate's office and the detention center to draw blood from anyone arrested on suspicion of drunken driving who refused at the scene to take a breath test. Prosecutors will assist with...