Whatch you sthay, readersz?
"Court mismatch makes OUI justice elusive; Lawyers who specialize in defending drunk drivers enjoy huge legal advantages built into state law, and have the ear of some judges prone to favor their arguments, no matter how far-fetched, November 13, 2011 | Globe Spotlight Team
Call it OUI Inc., the cottage industry of lawyers and expert witnesses whose livelihoods are built on getting drivers charged with operating under the influence of alcohol off the hook - and back on the road.
When drunken driving cases go to trial in Massachusetts courts, it is often a clear mismatch, a Spotlight Team review has found - and not just because some judges, as the Globe has reported in this series, are inclined to find defendants not guilty no matter the weight of evidence against them.
There are also lawyers like Stephen L. Jones, the dean of drunken driving defense lawyers in Massachusetts, with thousands of trials behind them, who time and again triumph over relatively inexperienced prosecutors struggling under heavy caseloads.
Yeah, the poor state (cue the violins).
Look, I'm not in favor of drunk-driving, either. That's why I'm a strict prohibitionist.
The scales of justice tip their way, and that’s no accident. It’s the way those who write the laws here, and those who adjudicate them, appear to want it.
The stars of the OUI bar know when to tip off their clients to bypass the vagaries of the jury for a sympathetic judge. But more important, they go into battle with special legal advantages in this state, especially the prohibition on putting a driver’s refusal to take a breath-test into evidence.
It is a devastating advantage for the defense, making proof of intoxication entirely circumstantial: the staggering step, slurred speech, boozy breath, and so on. Only one other state has anything like it. It makes OUI lawyers here the envy of their colleagues across the country.
Massachusetts, like other states, also enforces intricate procedures police must follow in making OUI stops, procedures that some officers complete imperfectly, sometimes carelessly, opening easy lines of attack for aggressive counsel.
Indeed, the defense lawyers’ favorite courtroom targets are the often inartful investigative reports by the police officer on the scene and the officer’s recollection of events long past. There are rarely other witnesses to the alleged crime. Police officers are trained to look for specific markers of intoxication, but the resulting lingo - “glassy eyes’’ and “thick tongued’’ speech - is often unimpressive to judges who have heard it hundreds of times before.
Sorry, readers, I passed out for a second there.
It is, in short, a lopsided competition, and Jones is unapologetic about the fact that his success often means that someone who was in fact driving while impaired gets off without penalty. Like any litigator, his obligation is zealous advocacy for his client.
He's just like an agenda-pushing, war-promoting newspaper.
“If he gets a break, you know, who’s hurt?’’ said Jones, an affable 55-year-old. “Most people learn their lesson just by their arrest.’’
For lawyers who specialize in drunken driving cases, business has never been so good.
As drunken driving penalties in the state have gradually gotten more severe, the incentive to go to trial has only grown. Lawyers increasingly encourage their clients to fight rather than plead out.
Melanie’s Law, passed in 2005, lengthened license suspensions and imposed on second-time offenders the humiliation of having to blow into a breath-testing device before their cars will start.
And a little-noticed 2002 law eliminated any sunset on prior offenses. Defendants with convictions more than a decade old used to be treated like first-time offenders. Not now. A middle-aged father who had a couple of youthful indiscretions in his teens but stayed out of trouble for 30 years now faces six months in jail if convicted on a third offense....
Wow. I've already had enough, readers.
--more--"
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