Law enforcement has to have a reason for making a traffic stop. They cannot just pull someone over without cause. Often, the reason for a stop is simple and obvious: speeding, running a red light, or driving erratically. In order to make the stop, though, the officer must observe a driver breaking the law or exhibiting signs of impairment. They cannot simply assume because a vehicle is out late at night or because they saw a vehicle leave the parking lot of a bar or nightclub that the driver is impaired.
What are the signs of impairment that give an officer reasonable suspicion to make a DUI stop? The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA)--the same agency that developed the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST) used in a DUI stop--provides law enforcement agencies with a list of indicators in the booklet The Visual Detection of DWI Motorists.
While an outright traffic violation provides definite cause for a traffic stop, other signs are more subtle, and the NHTSA gives a statistical likelihood of a driver's impairment based upon the observation of one or more visual clues. Through its research into impaired driving behaviors, the agency identified 24 DWI cues divided into four categories:
Problems with lane position are often one of the first indicators of impairment noted by law enforcement. Driving behaviors in this category include:
Struggling to maintain the lane can also be a sign of other types of distraction: texting, reading a map, picking up a dropped object, changing a radio station, talking to passengers in the back seat, etc. On its own, drifting across lanes does not mean that a driver is drunk. According to the NHTSA, lane problems indicates a .50 to .75 probability that the driver is impaired, depending on whether or not the officer also observes other cues.
Everyone knows that if a driver is speeding, he or she has a high risk of being pulled over by police. However, speeds that are too slow may also be a signal for law enforcement. Driving cues in the category of "speed and braking problems" include the following:
The NHTSA indicates that speed and braking problems demonstrate a statistical likelihood of DUI at .45 to .70.
"Vigilance problems" refer to a driver's failure or inability to notice traffic signs or signals or his or her surroundings. DUI cues in this category include:
Vigilance problems demonstrate a .55 to .65 likelihood of impaired driving.
The last category, "judgement problems," are similar to those listed in other categories. These include:
The range of statistical likelihood of DUI is great for "judgement problems"--.35 to .90. This may depend upon the type of problem observed and its combination with any other DUI cue. According to the NHTSA, weaving plus any other cue makes the likelihood of impairment at least .65. The combination of any two cues gives a minimum statistical likelihood of .50.
The above indicators are those which law enforcement may use to make a traffic stop. Following the stop, there are other signs--including those observed during field sobriety tests--which may also indicate that a driver is intoxicated or impaired. Slurred speech, the odor of alcohol, balance problems, and more show a greater than .85 chance that the driver is impaired.
The best way to beat a DUI traffic stop is not to try to avoid the driving behaviors identified as DUI cues, but to avoid driving after drinking. If you do find yourself under arrest for DUI, call us for help.
There are times when the wheels of justice seem to turn too slowly, and a parent's drive to protect his or her own children becomes a blinding and uncontrollable rage. For one Florida father, fists of fury seemed to act more quickly than the long arm of the law.
If you have spent any time on social media, you have likely seen the swollen, battered, bloody, and misshapen face of 18-year-old Raymond Frolander (Image credit: Volusia County Corrections). Frolander is accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy, and when the boy's father literally caught Frolander with his pants down, he grabbed the teen and beat him unconscious.
The man told reporters that he intended to kill his son's molester, and went to the kitchen to get a knife. His son, however, stopped him from making such a critical and life-changing decision.
Instead, the father picked up the phone and called 9-1-1.
In the 911 call, the father tells a dispatcher, "I just walked in on a grown man molesting [my son], and I got him in a bloody puddle for you right now, officer."
When the dispatcher asked if weapons were involved in taking down the boy's abuser, the father replied, "My fist and my foot."
Clearly, that was all that was needed to stop the assault. The father told the emergency dispatcher to not only send police, but also to "send an ambulance. He's going to need one."
The father says that Frolander was a family friend whom he trusted with his son. After the sexual assault, which Frolander allegedly admitted, the young victim told police that Frolander had attempted to molest him once before, approximately three years ago.
The victim's father does not face any charges in the beating of his son's abuser. Instead, Daytona Beach Police Chief Michael Chitwood said he did not have any problem with the father's actions: "Not as a police chief, and not as a father." Chitwood furthered that the "father acted as a father should act."
Frolander is being held without bond on a complaint of sexual battery of a child under 12. In Oklahoma, the equivalent offense is lewd acts with a child under 16. The penalty for lewd acts with a minor in Oklahoma is 3 to 20 years in prison if the victim is aged 12 or older, but when the victim is under the age of 12, as alleged in the Frolander case, the sentence is 20 years to life.
Despite the rearrangement of his face and the sex offender conviction possibly before him, Frolander can be grateful things are not worse. Two years ago, a Texas rancher discovered a man raping his 5-year-old daughter. The father pulled the man, Jesus Flores, off of the girl and beat him so badly that the man died. The father did not intend to kill the man and even called 911 for medical help, saying, "I need an ambulance. This guy was raping my daughter and I don't know what to do," and asking the authorities to hurry: "Come on! This guy is going to die on me!"
The father was not charged in that case, with the district attorney citing state law that authorizes and justifies the use of lethal force in stopping an aggravated sexual assault.
Any time a convicted felon commits another crime, people are outraged. When the crime is a violent crime or a sex crime, the outrage is amplified.
"Why wasn't he still in jail?"
"How could this happen?"
"He should be locked up for life!"
In fact, cases of repeat offenders were the impetus for three-strikes legislation and sex offender registration laws like Megan's Law.
Even with these laws, however, career criminals are almost destined to repeat their crimes, and a small percentage of sex offenders are truly predatory. Even with the best intentions and the best safeguards, some criminals will repeat their crimes.
For parents, it is frustrating and frightening, and one Texas town is reeling from the discovery that a man who allegedly broke into a home and sexually assaulted a child should not have even been in the country at all.
In Springtown, Texas, about 70 miles from the Oklahoma border, parents were awakened by their 9-year-old daughter, who ran screaming into their bedroom to tell them that a man had come into their house, fondled her, and tried to get her to follow him to a bedroom. The parents discovered that their home had been burglarized, their cell phones and computer missing.
When police arrived at the scene, they discovered footprints which led to a nearby home that had also been burglarized. From there, they tracked down 35-year-old Israel Andrade sleeping on the couch at a relative's home only a mile from the crime scene. Police allegedly discovered two pairs of the girl's panties with Andrade.
Andrade is an illegal immigrant who relatives say came to the United States about a month ago. Even more shocking is the discovery that his return came after not one, but four deportations. The man had been kicked out of the United States and sent back to Mexico in July 2003, February 2004, September 2009, and December 2010.
Reports do not indicate the reasons for Andrade's deportations, other than his illegal immigrant status, but he has served federal prison terms three times for unlawful re-entry into the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicates he served 45 days the first time, 6 months the second time, and 2 years the third time. The agency stated that his criminal case in Texas takes precedence over his latest re-entry and deportation case, and they will investigate subsequent to any conviction and sentence for his burglary and child molestation charges.
Andrade is charged with two felonies: burglary of a habitation with intent to commit a felony and indecency with a child by sexual contact. If convicted, he faces 5 to 99 years in prison before facing federal immigration charges.
A registered sex offender living in Norman, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty last month in federal court to a charge of producing child pornography.
Anthony Ray Sackett pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in mid-June. He was accused of engaging in sexual activity with a 2-year-old girl early this year and using his smartphone to take pictures of the encounter. He then distributed the images over the internet via his phone.
Sackett was arrested and charged following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in California.
This is not the defendant's first time to be criminally prosecuted for involvement with child pornography. In 2002, Sackett was convicted of possession of child pornography in Cleveland County. In that case, Sackett took a computer to a Cash America pawn shop. When he did not reclaim the computer in 90 days, the pawn brokers began getting the computer ready for resale and discovered downloaded images of men having sex with children as young as eight. He was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of probation. He spent a few months in prison for that charge, with a few additional months served at the end for bail jumping.
Sackett was a Department of Corrections inmate from June 2002 until October 2004 for forgery, child pornography, and bail jumping charges. In 2011, he was given a 5-year suspended sentence for failure to register as a sex offender.
In addition, he has convictions for concealing stolen property and uttering forged instruments.
Because of his prior conviction of a sex crime, when Anthony Ray Sackett is sentenced in September, he faces 25 to 50 years in prison.
The federal law regarding the production of child pornography is found in 18 U.S.C. 2251 - The Sexual Exploitation of Children. Under this law, any person who uses a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the act, whether video or still photography, is guilty of a federal sex crime punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison. If, however, the person has prior convictions for crimes involving the sexual exploitation of minors, the sentence is enhanced:
The United States Department of Justice indicates on its website that trafficking in child pornography in the United States had been largely eradicated by the mid-1980's, but with the advent of the digital age came the proliferation of child pornography over the internet. Just as the method of distribution of child pornography changed, so did the methods of investigation and enforcement. Dedicated task forces and initiatives, including the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces and ICE's Operation Predator, deal specifically with identifying, investigating, reducing, and prosecuting acts of child sexual exploitation including the production and distribution of child pornography.
Learn more about child pornography laws and criminal defense against child porn charges here.
Several months after they were involved in separate fatal DUI accidents, two men have been charged in Oklahoma County with manslaughter.
Michael Thanh Nguyen, 23, is the driver of a vehicle that slammed into a vacant building in the Uptown district of Oklahoma City last March. Two passengers--21-year-old Victor Troung and 20-year-old Timothy Tran--died at the scene. Nguyen and another passenger, 22-year-old Thomas Tran, were transported to OU Medical Center in critical condition. Thomas Tran died of his injuries three days after the accident.
Investigators say blood alcohol testing conducted on Nguyen after the accident show that he was intoxicated at the time of the crash.
Now, Nguyen is charged in Oklahoma County District Court with three counts of first degree manslaughter for the accident which killed his friends.
Also charged with first degree manslaughter in Oklahoma County District Court this week is Dustin Shane Hall, 31. Police say Hall admitted to texting while driving and being under the influence of sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication when he rear-ended a vehicle near NE 10th and Bryant. The accident killed the driver of that vehicle, Ronald Banton, 27. Banton's 5-year-old son was also in the vehicle, but escaped without injury.
Hall was arrested at the scene on complaints of DUI, causing a fatality accident, and driving without a license.
Now, he is charged with first degree manslaughter for the accident that claimed a young father's life.
Manslaughter is a felony act of homicide that lacks the intent to kill noted in murder charges. According to 21 O.S. 711, first degree manslaughter occurs when a death results from one of the following circumstances:
By statute, first degree manslaughter in Oklahoma is punishable by a minimum of four years in prison. It is considered a violent felony, and it is one of Oklahoma's "85 Percent Crimes." Anyone convicted of one of the 22 felonies specified in 21 O.S. 13.1 must serve at least 85 percent of his or her sentence before even having a chance at parole. A person convicted of first degree manslaughter and given the minimum sentence would be required to serve nearly 3-1/2 years of the 4-year term before becoming eligible for parole.
A Lindsay woman who went with her 14-year-old daughter to a local gym to work out and work on her tan at the facility's tanning beds was in for quite a shock. As the young girl stepped out of the tanning bed to get dressed, she noticed a camera peering over the walls of the dressing area. The girl quickly reported the incident, and police responded to Flex Works Gym.
When they arrived, they confronted 31-year-old Eric McCoy. The suspect denied having a camera, but when officers asked him to step away from the area in which he had been standing, they discovered a small videocamera wrapped inside a towel. Police then asked McCoy if he had been recording women, and he allegedly admitted that he had.
Police looked at the recorded video on the camera and discovered 14 videos of four victims, including the 14-year-old girl and her mother. One victim told reporters that the suspect began recording her as soon as she began to undress and continued until she was in the tanning bed and no longer exposed.
McCoy was arrested and charged in Garvin County with Use of Video Equipment in a Clandestine Recording, a felony. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, which is a part of Oklahoma's peeping tom laws.
According to 21 O.S. 1171(B):
"Every person who uses photographic, electronic or video equipment in a clandestine manner for any illegal, illegitimate, prurient, lewd or lascivious purpose with the unlawful and willful intent to view, watch, gaze or look upon any person without the knowledge and consent of such person when the person viewed is in a place where there is a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy, or who publishes or distributes any image obtained from such act, shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a felony. The violator shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than five (5) years, or by a fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by both such fine and imprisonment."
It seems likely that since one of the videos taken involved nude images of a minor, he could also be charged with a more serious felony offense involving the manufacture or possession of child pornography. Child pornography involves sexually explicit images of anyone under the age of 18. While secretly recording a person for lewd or lascivious purpose is a felony punishable by a maximum of five years in prison, possessing or manufacturing child pornography is a felony sex crime that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Learn more about child pornography and other potential consequences of conviction here.
Last week we told you about a Bartlesville man whose domestic abuse charges were upgraded after his pregnant girlfriend's child was stillborn as a result of the assault. Now, Oklahoma City police are looking for a man accused of causing a woman's miscarriage after a series of domestic assaults that lasted for three days.
Police say Christopher Allen Whitfield, 31, also known as Christopher Allen Singer, assaulted the mother of one of his children by beating her with a shoe and with a closed fist until she nearly lost consciousness, locked her in a room with no food for three days, and raping her. According to a local news report, she was transported to a local hospital with "massive bruising across her entire body and burns to her face."The woman, who was six weeks pregnant during the assaults, suffered a miscarriage.
Whitfield, who was already wanted on domestic violence warrants from January of this year, now has warrants out for his arrest on complaints of rape and homicide. His criminal history shows a propensity for violence:
As stated in last week's blog post, domestic violence resulting in miscarriage or stillbirth is a serious felony offense. When domestic abuse leads to the loss of the unborn child, the offense is a felony that carries a minimum term of 20 years in prison.
Other acts of felony domestic violence include the following:
In addition to the domestic violence resulting in pregnancy loss accusation, Whitfield is wanted on a rape complaint. In Oklahoma, a first degree rape conviction brings a potential sentence of 5 years to life in prison.
A man accused of punching his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach now faces a more serious charge after the infant was stillborn.
On June 3, Michael Edward Mashone Bosworth, 23, of Bartlesville, was charged with assault and battery of a pregnant woman after his girlfriend, who was 5 months pregnant, told police that he assaulted her in a convenience store, pulling her by the hair and punching her in the stomach. A convenience store employee, noticing the assault, told Bosworth that surveillance cameras were recording the incident, but that did not stop him from hitting the woman in the stomach.
After police arrived, the woman was transported by ambulance to a local hospital for observation of the unborn child; unfortunately, within a few days, the mother suffered a miscarriage and the child was stillborn.
With the baby's death, the charge against Bosworth was amended and his bond was increased. A Washington County District Court Judge dismissed a charge of assault and battery of a pregnant woman, on which Bosworth was held on $5,000 bond, in order for the more serious charge to be filed. Bosworth is now charged with a felony: domestic assault and battery of a pregnant woman resulting in the miscarriage of an unborn child. His bond is now set at $200,000, and he is ordered to have no contact with his victim.
Domestic abuse charges range in severity depending on certain circumstances of the domestic violence. In general, a first offense of domestic assault and battery is a misdemeanor; however, repeat offenses, the presence of children, serious bodily injury, the use of a weapon, or assault against a pregnant woman can all lead to enhanced charges or penalties.
For example, a first offense of domestic assault and battery without aggravating factors is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in county jail and a fine of up to $5,000. Domestic assault and battery against a pregnant woman resulting in miscarriage, on the other hand, is a felony. It carries a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison.
State law describes the penalties for domestic abuse of a pregnant woman in 21 O.S. 644(E):
Learn more about domestic violence laws in Oklahoma here.
An Oklahoma City woman has been booked into the Oklahoma County Jail on outstanding DUI and traffic warrants and a child rape complaint after being accused of forcibly raping her friend's 13-year-old son.
According to reports, a friend of 28-year-old Jamie Alice Etsitty dropped by Etsitty's home to let her pick up some things for herself and her two children. The woman sent her own 13-year-old son inside to help Etsitty. However, the pair seemed to be taking a long time returning, so the woman sent her 8-year-old child inside to check on them.
When the younger boy returned, he told his mother that he heard "banging around" in the closet and saw Etsitty and his brother "doing dirty things."
The mother entered the home and confronted Etsitty, who denied any wrongdoing. The woman then took Etsitty to her own home, but noting that her son and her friend were "acting strange" and in light of Etsitty's extreme intoxication--the suspect passed out in the woman's vehicle--she called the police to report what her younger son told her.
Police interviewed the 13-year-old boy, who said that Etsitty was very drunk and acting "pushy," putting her hands in his pants and sexually assaulting him. He said that the woman forced him into the closet and made him perform sex acts. The boy indicated that he was scared and didn't know what to do, so he went along with Etsitty's demands.
Although the suspect initially denied the allegations, she allegedly confessed after hearing that the boy told police what happened.
Etsitty was arrested on a first degree rape complaint as well as outstanding warrants for driving while under suspension for a 2004 DUI conviction and for a 2007 charge of DUI causing a personal injury accident. She is held on $50,000 bond for the rape complaint; the judge has yet to set bail for the outstanding warrants.
It is clear that people make bad decisions while heavily intoxicated or impaired by drugs or alcohol. Alcoholism may be at the root of not only DUI, but also domestic violence, assault and battery, sexual assault and other crimes involving a lack of impulse control or impaired judgment. Unfortunately, some people do not get the help they need until they have made an impulsive decision that destroys their lives and the lives of those affected by their actions.
Sexual penetration accomplished through force or with a child under the age of 14 are two examples of the seven specified acts of first degree rape. First degree rape is punishable by a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison and a maximum of life without parole. As a Level 3 sex offense, it mandates lifetime sex offender registration.
Domestic violence often escalates outside the home, particularly in cases where a person tries to leave his or her attackers. Statistics show that for many people in abusive relationships, the most dangerous time is when they leave their abuser. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence encourages victims of domestic abuse to find allies among not only friends and family members, but also among co-workers. For one Oklahoma woman, having her co-workers nearby may have saved her life.
Police say an employee of The Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City was stabbed in the parking garage Friday at approximately 2:00 p.m. as she left work. Two nearby co-workers intervened to stop the attack, and they held the suspect, Willie Napoleon, in custody until police arrived. A doctor put the victim in his car and drove her to the emergency room before she underwent emergency surgery.
Court records show that the victim and her children had a protective order against Napoleon, which was filed in January following an incident of domestic violence. The final orders of protection are valid through January 2019. Napoleon has a pending misdemeanor case for domestic assault and battery related to that incident.
Now, the 41-year-old man has been arrested on complaints of violating a protective order, domestic assault and battery, and assault with a deadly weapon.
In general, a first offense of domestic abuse is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum of one year in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. However, there are certain factors which can elevate the crime of domestic violence to a felony:
Initially charged with a misdemeanor offense that would put him in the Oklahoma County Jail for less than a year, Willie Napoleon now faces multiple charges that could put him in prison for life.
Violating a protective order is a misdemeanor on the first offense and a felony upon second or subsequent offense. If the defendant causes injury to the victim in violating the orders, the violation carries mandatory minimum jail time.
While a first offense of domestic assault and battery is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in jail, a second offense is a felony. Because Napoleon has a pending domestic abuse case, this second incident is a felony punishable by a maximum of four years in prison.
Furthermore, domestic assault and battery with a deadly weapon is a felony that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Domestic violence is a very real problem in Oklahoma. Recent reports indicate that the state ranks third nationally in the number of domestic violence deaths. If you or your loved one is the victim of domestic violence, call the Oklahoma Safeline at 1-800-522-SAFE (7233) for help.
