DWI Tag Archives — Page 12 of 19 — Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Blog

Businesses face civil and criminal penalties for refusing same-sex business

Published on: October 21, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?

Officials in a northern Idaho city have threatened two citizens with arrest, fines and imprisonment after the citizens “politely declined” a same-sex couple’s request to be married at their wedding chapel.

Donald and Evelyn Knapp, who own the Hitching Post wedding chapel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, were notified by city authorities that they violated Coeur d’Alene’s city code Chapter 9.56, which provides for “equal opportunities for employment, housing, commercial property, and the use of public accommodations… regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression[.]”

City Attorney Warren Wilson told the Idaho Statesman that the term “public accommodations” applies to wedding activity, noting that similar laws have applied to florists, bakeries and photographers in other states who refused to work on same-sex weddings.

Donald Knapp told KXLY in May that he could not unite people in a way that he believes is in conflict with what the Bible teaches. The Coeur d’Alene ordinance provides exemptions for religious organizations, but the Knapps’ wedding chapel is a for-profit business, so the exemptions do not apply to them.

The Knapps face a 180-day jail term and $1,000 per-day fine for each day they decline to perform the same-sex wedding. Under Title 1, Chapter 1.28(B) of Coeur d’Alene’s city code, the penalties are cumulative, meaning the Knapps face a separate 180-day jail term and $1,000 fine for each day on which their refusal continues.

City backs away from attempt to seize sermons from pastors who objected to ordinance

Published on: October 16, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?

A group of Texas pastors who participated in a political effort to repeal a controversial city ordinance have been targeted by pro bono attorneys representing the City of Houston.

The pastors and others filed a lawsuit after petitioning unsuccessfully to repeal Houston’s “Equal Rights Ordinance.” Attorneys representing the city subpoenaed sermons and other materials related to the ordinance, to Mayor Annise Parker and the subject of homosexuality. On Wednesday, however, Mayor Parker backed away from the subpoenas, calling them overly broad and appearing to agree with critics who said the subpoenas trampled on the pastors’ free speech rights.

The ordinance was passed this spring with great fanfare, however the “roaring chorus of cheers” that erupted inside Houston’s city hall in May has dulled, and the passage of the anti-discrimination ordinance that precipitated those cheers is circling into a drain of acrimony.

The council that governs Texas’ largest city passed by a vote of 11-6 what many consider to be Mayor Parker’s signature achievement. The ordinance was passed after a string of hotly-contested public meetings.

The ordinance outlaws discrimination based on a variety of factors. Initially Mayor Parker suggested that the idea for the ordinance arose after African-American men complained that they were refused entry to nightclubs in the city based on their race.

Fall foliage playing unexpected role in hunt for accused cop killer

Published on: October 14, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “If I have an outstanding warrant, what should I do?”

North Carolina is not the only state that boasts of rich fall foliage painting its Appalachian hillsides and mountains annually. Now one eastern seaboard state is counting on the falling foliage to uncover an accused cop killer.

Eric Frein, a self-described “survivalist” and trained marksman who—according to his father—“doesn’t miss” when he shoots, has been on the run in Pennsylvania’s mountainous Appalachian region since September 12. Police allege Frein shot Cpl. Bryon Dickson to death and critically injured Trooper Alex Douglass outside their Pike County, Pennsylvania barracks.

Frein, who is considered “armed and extremely dangerous,” ambushed the officers and then fled into the forested Poconos Mountains. The Poconos are part of the Appalachian range situated in northeast Pennsylvania.

The search for Frein has dragged on for over a month and, according to officials, it is costing taxpayers in the Keystone State some $1.1 million per day. Before the shooting, Frein lived with his parents in Seneca Lake, Pennsylvania. After his son went missing, Frein’s father told authorities Frein was likely armed with an AK-47 and a .308 rifle with a scope, which were missing from the home.

Frein was trained by his father to shoot the weapons and also knows how to survive in the woods. On September 29, searchers found a cache of food, two pipe bombs and handwritten notes detailing the shootings of Dickson and Douglass when they stumbled on Frein’s recently abandoned hideout.

Disturbing trend sees disaffected youths joining terrorist fighters abroad

Published on: October 9, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Should I talk to the police?”

Notes urging loved ones not to give away your criminal plans are never a good idea, especially if you do not want to get caught. This is something would-be ISIS fighter Mohammed Hamzah Khan did not learn before attempting to travel overseas to join and fight with the infamous terrorist group.

ISIS—a name short for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria—is a terrorist organization that has taken control of much of northwestern Syria and northeastern Iraq. The United States has said the group has as many as 35,000 fighters under its flag. It is also called—most notably by U.S. President Barak Obama—“ISIL,” short for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Levant is a term historically used to refer to an area of the eastern Mediterranean lands now comprised of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel.

Disillusioned young people from Europe and the United States have been travelling to Syria and Iraq in alarming numbers to join forces with ISIS. James Comey, director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigators, said his agency is aware of at least a dozen Americans fighting for ISIS in Syria. As many as 100, however, have either tried to travel to Syria and were arrested or have travelled there and returned to the United States, Comey said.

Khan planned to fly to Vienna, Austria—in Eastern Europe—and from there planned to fly to Istanbul, Turkey. Turkish troops are fighting ISIS at the Syrian border to prevent fighters from advancing into the NATO-member state. NATO stands for the North American Treaty Organization, a union traditionally comprised of North American and European trading partners. Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952, and European NATO states have promised to help Turkey in the event of an ISIS invasion.

Young woman plans to commit suicide on Nov. 1, wants others to have the same right

Published on: October 7, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?

A 29-year-old terminally ill woman is shining her light on “dying with dignity,” a cause she hopes she furthers when she kills herself on November 1.

On that date, Brittany Maynard plans to take a lethal dose of a medication prescribed to her by a doctor. She said she plans to “painlessly fade away” in her bedroom, surrounded by her loved ones, with her favorite music playing.

Maynard was diagnosed on New Year’s Day this year with Stage 4 glioblastoma, a form of aggressive cancer that would end her life in a matter of months, her doctor told her. Maynard said she is not suicidal. “I want to live,” she told People Magazine, but there is no cure for her disease.

After doctors told her what would happen to her body during the final stages of her illness, Maynard said it was a relief to discover an alternative: Death with Dignity. Death on her own terms is an option because, Maynard said, she lives in one of the few states that allows it. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, passed in 1997, allows “terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.”

Only five states have so-called “Death with Dignity” laws on the books. North Carolina is not one of them.

Charlotte eye doctors arrested after detectives uncover alleged hydrocodone trafficking

Published on: September 25, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI and Criminal Defense Attorney J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “If I simply intend to plead guilty, why do I need a lawyer?”

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers arrested two Charlotte eye doctors on Tuesday and charged them with trafficking in opiates, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, and larceny.

A patient of Dr. Benjamin Lanier Hobbs and Dr. Samuel Ryan Hobbs said he was given a prescription for hydrocodone and told to return to Clear View Eye Care—where the doctors worked—once it was filled. The patient complied, but said when he brought the pills to the doctors’ office, the doctors removed a portion of the pills from the bottle before returning the bottle to him.

Detectives told Charlotte’s WBTV that the doctors prescribed large amounts of hydrocodone to patients. Detectives executed search warrants at the doctors’ offices in order to seize records relating to unknown victims.

The doctors’ arrest follows several other high-profile drug trafficking cases involving Charlotte-area doctors. Law enforcement officials say the over-prescribing of drugs and doctor involvement in prescription drug trafficking is a troubling trend.

Commissioner wants NC bicyclists licensed, insured, registered and taxed

Published on: September 18, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI and Criminal Defense Attorney J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Can the police search my car without a warrant?”

When the humanity of the future looks back at our American age, they may properly describe it as the age of rules, an age in which personal freedom may be exercised only with certain caveats. Those caveats seem always to be expanding.

A person in North Carolina can drive a motor vehicle on a public roadway, for instance, but only upon certain conditions. The motor vehicle the person is operating must be insured. It must have been inspected within a year and contain, on its license plate, proof of the inspection. The motor vehicle must be affixed with a valid license plate. The driver must possess a valid driver’s license. The driver and all occupants must restrain themselves with seatbelts. Of course, the driver must obey all traffic laws. Violations of any of these rules subject a person to criminal or administrative penalties.

All these rules have some people opting for bikes, and I don’t mean motorcycles. Municipalities like the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have been encouraging bicycle use for years. Increased bicycle use for transportation cuts down on traffic congestion and is better for the environment, they say. That has led urban planners to cut heavily travelled urban roadways like Charlotte’s East Boulevard from four lanes to two lanes and, at the same time, to install pedestrian and cyclist-friendly bicycle lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks.

In general, bicycles may be a frustrated automobile driver’s ticket to a simpler life. Not so fast, says Rowan County Commissioner Craig Pierce. Pierce thinks anyone who rides a bicycle on a state highway—including in bike lanes—should be required to have a driver’s license, to carry a policy of liability insurance on the bike, to register the bike and to pay property taxes on it. Pierce said when he went to the beach and bought a golf cart, he found out that if he drove the golf cart on a public road, he had to “put a tag on it, it has to be inspected, it has to have seatbelts, it has to have lights, it has to turn signals, has to have a rearview mirror, it has to have a horn, has to have a windshield wiper…”

Question we should be asking on death penalty is “Are we doing this or not?”

Published on: September 16, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?

North Carolina’s death row houses 152 inmates awaiting execution. The state has not executed an inmate since 2006. A series of lawsuits brought by death-row inmates in 2007 led to what some call a “de facto moratorium.” Those lawsuits are still pending.

Now a group called “North Carolina Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty” is pushing state lawmakers to consider whether replacing the death penalty with life-in-prison-without-the-possibility-of-parole would be prudent in light of recent death-penalty developments in the Tar Hell state and elsewhere. Raleigh-based political consultant Ballard Everett is the group’s “coordinator.” According the Associated Press, the group’s membership includes current or former Republican Party chairmen from at least three North Carolina counties.

The state legislature passed a law last year aimed at resuming capital punishment. Last October, the Department of Public Safety issued a new set of protocols for carrying out death sentences. The “Execution Procedure Manual” provides for the administration of a single drug—Pentobarbital—to execute inmates.

Pentobarbital isn’t the easiest drug to find in the world, at least for states seeking to use it in lethal injections. The drug’s European manufacturers—located in countries that oppose the death penalty—refuse to sell the drug to states and departments that may use it to carry out death sentences.

Man acquitted of killing drunk driver who killed his two sons fears vigilante justice

Published on: September 11, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI and Criminal Defense Attorney J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Is there more than one way for police to convict a DWI?”

A man who authorities said shot to death the drunk driver who killed his two sons has now left his home over fears of vigilante reprisals. The man, David Barajas, was pushing his stalled pickup truck along an Alvin, Texas road in December of 2012 with the assistance of his sons, ages 11 and 12, when 20-year-old Jose Banda plowed into them, killing the two boys.

911 calls made from the scene captured the sound of Banda’s shooting. Banda was killed instantly. Barajas fought to revive his boys until police arrived, and was covered in their blood when he was arrested.

Police charged Barajas with Banda’s murder; prosecutors alleged that Barajas killed Banda in a fit of rage. They alleged that Barajas went to his home—about 100 yards from the crash site—and retrieved a gun which he then used to shoot Banda. The gun was never found, and little physical evidence connected Barajas to Banda’s shooting. No witnesses saw Barajas shoot Banda, and gunshot residue tests performed on Barajas were negative. A search of Barajas’ home failed to turn up evidence linking him to Banda’s killing.

Barajas’ attorney, Sam Cammack, said Barajas didn’t kill Banda and was only focused on saving his two boys. Three witnesses for the State admitted that gunfire could be heard well after Banda had been shot, raising the possibility that the shooter was still at large. A Texas jury agreed, acquitting Barajas on Aug. 27.

Proposed “smoking” ban just the latest assault on personal freedom

Published on: September 9, 2014 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What is the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony?”

Mecklenburg County wants to ban cigarette smoking, chewing tobacco and electronic cigarettes on public lands, including golf courses, greenways and parks. It lacks the legal authority to prohibit products that are not “lighted” cigarettes, cigars, pipes, “or other lighted tobacco product[s].” That is because Article 23 of Chapter 130A of the North Carolina General Statutes—the law from which the county derives its authority to regulate smoking—does not give the county the power to regulate products that are not “lighted.”

The county still wants to move forward with the ban. The initiative is being spearheaded by Mecklenburg County Health Director Marcus Plescia. He said smoking is Mecklenburg County’s greatest health hazard. County commissioners will vote on the ban on Sept. 17.

Plescia said the County would enforce the ban by spending $100,000 to $200,000 on signs that would “make it clear where you can smoke and where you cannot smoke—people will follow the rules.”

I am a criminal defense attorney, and my professional experience tells me many people will not follow the rules. Many people will smoke, chew tobacco and use electronic cigarettes in prohibited spaces, even if commissioners pass their ordinances.

Then what happens? North Carolina’s anti-smoking law provides that violators shall bear “no consequence other than payment” of a 50-dollar fine. I believe offenders will still end up with criminal charges as a result of the ban.