Since 24-year-old Renee B. was critically injured in a three-car crash eight days ago, family and friends have kept a vigil at Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol report, Renee was driving on Lem Turner Road in Nassau County about 7 p.m. on July 10 when she was hit by a car that had run through a stop sign at the intersection with Fouracre Circle. Renee had to be cut out of her crushed car.

Doctors told Renee’s mother, Connie, she shouldn’t have survived.

“A mother’s nightmare,” Connie said. “It’s very hard, because that’s your baby sitting up there with tubes coming out of here, knowing that’s she’s got two little babies waiting for her to come home, and she can’t go home to them.”

Renee’s two children are 6 years and 18 months old.

The FHP said the man that ran into Renee and a another driver was suspected of driving under the influence. That makes her family furious.

“I was very, very angry, and I thought, if I ever seen the guy, I would really be punching him. Then the Lord came to me and said, ‘I died on the cross for you,’” Connie told Channel 4′s Jason Law.
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A Martin County jail deputy has been arrested on a charge of DUI after a witness saw him weaving on the road and then crashing his truck into a barbed-wire fence.

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the arrest of jail deputy Adam W., 31, of Stuart, who was was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol on Southwest Citrus Boulevard north of State Road 714 at about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The FHP reports Adam had bloodshot eyes, unresponsive pupils, seemed confused and was unsteady on his feet. He admitted to taking a medication that was redacted in the police report provided to the media.

Adam has been employed by MCSO since 2001 and is currently a deputy assigned to the county jail.

Adam was released from jail Tuesday after posting bond in the amount of $750 and he has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending criminal charges.

The jail has withheld Adam’s mugshot image, citing state law that allows arrested police officers to request their jail mugshot and personal information not be released under Florida Statute, Chapter 119.071(4)(d).

To be it doesn’t make sense why only members of law enforcement are allowed to request their mugshot not be shown. Seems a bit bias to me. If you’ve been accused of DUI in Jacksonville, you were probably not on a level playground then, either. To discuss fighting the charge and saving your license, contact a Jacksonville DUI attorney at our firm today for a free legal consultation.

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A woman allegedly driving recklessly in two counties was stopped by two motorists who prevented her from leaving by using their vehicles as shields until Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrived on scene. The woman was then arrested on a DUI charge.

On Thursday, troopers were told that a Lady Lake police officer was dispatched to a call about someone driving erratically on U.S. 441 in Lady Lake. The officer followed the vehicle, but discontinued the pursuit when the driver crossed into Marion County.

Witnesses saw the erratic driver, later identified as Bonnie A., 49, and two of them, using their vehicles, blocked her in the northbound inside lane of U.S. 441 just north of Southeast 104th Street until troopers arrived.

Appearing unsteady on her feet, Bonnie, whose eyes were watery and bloodshot, and who smelled of alcohol, failed a field sobriety exercise given to her by Trooper Susan Barge.
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DUI Unsure After Fatal Duval Crash

One man is dead after his SUV rolled over several times on Highway 16 south of Freer this week. Officials say the man was moved by ambulance, then Halo Flight, Spohn Memorial Hospital where he later died.

Police believe the man in his 20′s overcorrected and flipped the vehicle. No one else was involved in the crash. They have not revealed if he had alcohol, prescription medication or an illicit drug in his system.

RIP – Jacksonville Drunk Driving Attorneys

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At Musca Law, we have found there are eight questions we need to ask before we prepare a DUI defense for one of our clients. These questions are essential if we are to prepare a solid defense before Duval County prosecutors.

Was our client actually the driver?

We expect the prosecuting attorney to attempt to prove that you were the driver of the car. It is not illegal to be a passenger in a car while legally intoxicated. If our client was arrested for a DUI after an accident, we want to challenge any evidence and present the prosecutor from proving that our client was in actual physical control of a motor vehicle.

Was there probable cause for stopping you?

An officer must present probable cause for stopping you anywhere in Duval County. Unless this can be demonstrated, any evidence that is obtained can and will be suppressed. A non-driving violation is typically not a legally acceptable pretext for pulling you over.

Were you read your Miranda rights?

This is a basic right in Duval County and elsewhere in Florida. If you weren’t read your Miranda rights, Musca Law’s DUI attorney will seek suppression of any incriminating statements you may have made.

Were you warned about the consequences of failing to take the tests requested?

Florida law expects police officers to advise you of the consequences if you refuse to take a breathalyzer or roadside sobriety tests. Officers are also required to give the tests correctly. If the office fails to give you the warning, this can affect whether the Department of Motor Vehicles has the right to suspend your driving privileges.
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Beth P. will raise her 1-year-old grandson Matthew, named after his father who was struck and killed by a drunk driver.

“My life will never be the same,” she said.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge David Rimmer sentenced the man convicted of killing her son to 20 years in state prison on charges of DUI manslaughter, leaving the scene of a crash and marijuana possession.

John Doe’s blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit on April 10, 2010, after his car veered into the path of a motorcycle driven by Matthew H., 29, of Cantonment.

Doe , faced up to 46 years in state prison as a result of his conviction in the crash that occurred near U.S. 98 and Simmons Drive.

Mathew’s mother wept quietly as Assistant State Attorney Jennie Kinsey read aloud a letter they wrote for the court.

“Matthew was a very loving and caring man. He was my only child and my parents’ only grandson,” the letter said. “Matthew was also a very loving father to his 1-year-old son, Matthew.
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The state cannot suspend a driver’s license for refusing to take a breath test if the motorist was not lawfully arrested, a sharply divided Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a pair of cases from Duval and Polk counties.

It’s about time! The court ruling means the same rules apply to administrative drivers license suspensions as apply to criminal proceedings after a motor vehicle arrest.

For the past three years, different rules applied in the Tampa Bay area, after an earlier decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeal. Under that earlier decision — overturned by Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling — a person could lose his license administratively even if a judge ruled in a criminal proceeding that a traffic stop was invalid.

The Supreme Court’s 4-3 majority noted Florida’s “implied consent” law allows suspensions only for valid arrests.

“Florida law does not require an individual to submit to a breath alcohol-detection test simply because that person possesses a driver’s license,” the majority wrote in the unsigned opinion.
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Police have caught a man accused of stealing a truck with a baby inside.

John Doe, 36, of Atlantic Beach is now charged with carjacking, kidnapping, careless driving, DUI and other offenses.

The victim told police she was in the drive-through at the Krystal restaurant at the corner of Beach Boulevard and St. Johns Bluff Road with her 13-month-old grandchild in the backseat.

Doe forced himself got into the victim’s white dually pickup truck and punched her in the face four to five times, witnesses told police. He then threw her from the vehicle and took off with the baby still inside.

The man in the vehicle behind the woman’s truck followed the suspect, and he called 911 to give police updates on the suspect’s movements.

Within five minutes, police arrested the man on Kernan Boulevard, just past the JTB interchange. According to police reports, Doe was stumbling as he walked and had a strong odor of alchohol.

Updates as they are available – Jacksonville DUI attorneys

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Jacksonville police have charged a Clay County man with DUI-manslaughter after a March 6 crash that killed his passenger on Old Kings Road.

John Doe, 24, of Middleburg was arraigned Tuesday by Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud.

A blood sample showed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.185 percent, which is more than double the lawful limit, according to his arrest report.

Doe drove into a cement wall in the 7900 block of Old Kings Road shortly past 2 a.m. The crash killed passenger Tiffany M., 21, of Jacksonville.

Doe is scheduled for a pretrial hearing June 28.

Updates as they are available.

RIP Tiffany – Jacksonville DUI Attorneys

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The State Attorney’s Office on Monday afternoon dropped DUI charges against David Lawrence “Dave” Hlubek, the guitarist with the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet.

Hlubek, who lives in Port St. Lucie, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence by a St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputy in the early morning hours of Sept. 30 in the 5000 block of U.S. 1.

However, in an order filed May 9, County Judge Philip J. Yacucci ruled the deputy didn’t have sufficient cause to pull over the co-author of the song “Whiskey Man” and threw out all the evidence obtained in the traffic stop, including blood-alcohol content results of 0.13 and 0.14, both above the state’s legal limit of 0.08.

According to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office report and Yacucci’s order, a woman who gave only her first name and said she was Hlubek’s girlfriend called 911 to report she and Hlubek had just had a physical altercation and that he had driven away from a Fort Pierce arcade intoxicated.
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