San Diego Criminal Defense Lawyer news - San Diego DUI Attorney commentary

What can a Tennessee drug user, wife beater and burglar do that someone convicted of driving under the influence can't? All but Tn. DUI offenders are eligible to have their criminal records wiped clean. Such harsh terms normally apply only to the most violent perpetrators, such as murderers and sexual predators.

Criminal defense attorneys say that's one more reason drivers should be careful this holiday season, a time when DUI arrests typically rise.

But Nashville criminal defense attorney Doug Thurman is among several defense lawyers who say DUI arrests stay on a person's record all because of a law that is politically motivated and needs to be changed.

"A DUI is going to be held against you for the rest of your life,'' Thurman said.

He says it's not right that felons are allowed to get a chance at having their records wiped clean when first-time DUI offenders, who've been convicted of a misdemeanor charge, can't.

The law — which has been discussed by a state DUI task force and may come up for debate in the next legislative session — has serious consequences for people convicted of DUI, Thurman said.

"DUI has a mandatory jail sentence if you're convicted, and you're going to lose your license," he said. "So a further punishment here is the non-expunge ability. I just think that's a little too much for somebody who's never been in trouble and makes one mistake."

Advocates who work at keeping drunken drivers off the road say laws need to be tough because intoxicated drivers pose such a danger.

"I think what folks need to realize is that when they get in a car and they drive that they're basically driving a weapon," said Kendall Poole, director of the Governor's Highway Safety Office. The head of the state office of Mothers Against Drunk Driving agreed.

"They could have just as easily committed homicide," Laura Dial, executive director of MADD of Tennessee, said of the first-time DUI offenders. "It's vehicular homicide, which is murder. So, they got lucky when they decided to drive drunk and they didn't kill someone and then become convicted of vehicular homicide or vehicular assault.''

Dial said studies show that a person arrested on a first-time DUI charge has usually been driving drunk 87 times before but just never got caught.

Ken Worthing, 34, an information technology professional who was arrested on a DUI charge in Nashville, took issue with MADD's numbers.

"I'm not going to say I never drove after having a few drinks — I know I have — but 87 times seems hard to believe," he said.

Worthing, who has since moved to Washington state, said he had no idea that having a few beers with dinner after work would leave him with a permanently stained record. He said he didn't think he was impaired when an officer pulled him over for speeding on West End Avenue.

He didn't realize how seriously the charge was treated until after his August 2005 arrest — and didn't realize what role the charge, to which he pleaded guilty, might play if he decides to leave his current job. Having a DUI arrest on one's record can complicate everything from an employment background check to professional school applications to car insurance rates.

"I don't know what I'll do if and when that time comes," Worthing said.



'They're easy targets'

Worthing and others arrested on DUI charges face a hostile political climate, another defense attorney said.

"I think DUI offenders are the whipping children of the legislature," Nashville attorney Patrick Frogge said. "They're easy targets and there's an effective lobbying organization that keeps DUIs on the legislature's agenda."

He said it makes no sense that DUIs are lumped in with crimes that are considered too serious to be erased from the record. The most serious violent felonies, along with most sex crimes, and DUI can't be expunged from a criminal record, he said.

In most cases, a DUI charge has to be dismissed or a judge or a jury has to acquit the defendant in order for the arrest to be expunged from the record. Charges are also eligible to be expunged if the case is dismissed.

Even if a drunken driving defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge, such as reckless driving, the DUI arrest will be on his record, lawyers say.

Metro Jail records show that DUI is the single most common charge for which people are arrested once and never get booked again into the jail.

Thurman said that figure makes perfect sense because most people who get arrested for a first-time DUI are normally good citizens. Many, he said, are people who have a drink or two after work and get pulled over for driving a few miles over the speed limit.

But Dial of MADD said the Metro Jail figures don't include the number of times people have been rearrested for DUI in outlying counties. She did, however, acknowledge that a lot of otherwise good people were getting arrested on the charge and said it should serve as a warning to people who plan to go out drinking.