Fla. judge declines to open recordings in DUI case

MIAMI — Sean Casey admits having several drinks the night of a fatal accident in 2001. Somewhere around his last rum and Coke, while watching the sun rise at a Miami beach bar, he says he blacked out. Everything after that is a blur.He doesn't remember driving home, only waking up in his apartment. But someone slammed Casey's black BMW into 71-year-old Mary Montgomery as she crossed the street, killing her. Authorities found the car abandoned, its tags leading them to Casey. They charged him with DUI manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crime.

A few years later, he fled the country before his trial, claiming his lawyer, a big-time attorney now running for judge, told him to leave instead of taking the chance he could go to prison.

Casey says he has the recordings to prove it, but Florida is among several states where it is generally illegal to record someone without their knowledge.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge John Thornton ruled that the transcripts of those recordings will remain sealed, saying they were made illegally because they were secretly recorded. The judge also found no evidence that attorney Milton Hirsch committed a criminal act.

The judge called the tapes contraband. Casey and his lawyers maintain Florida's statute is flawed and that regardless of how recordings are made, they should be allowed as evidence because they show a crime has been committed.

Casey said in a jailhouse interview this week that his former attorney, Milton Hirsch, told him "that he wished I could disappear, to get out of harm's way. He said prison is not a place for you. Prison is a place with big muscle guys."

Casey also claims his legal psychologist, Dr. Michael Rappaport, told him to leave the country before the trial, telling him "most of the people who leave the country don't get caught. And there aren't DUI gay guys from Miami on Interpol's list."

The Boston native said he was terrified. He and his family drained their accounts for almost $100,000 to hire Hirsch, a big name lawyer who'd handled prominent national cases including his successful defense of Pedro Guerrero, a former major league all-star, on drug charges.

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With more than 40 years of combined service, three officers promoted at JPD

The Johnston Police Department held a promotion ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 26, at the Johnston Senior Center. Mayor Joseph Polisena swore the officers in after an introduction by Chief David Decesare. Decesare was also promoted earlier in the year.

“Each has served the town with pride and distinction,” said Decesare, who welcomed the standing-room only crowd.

Promoted were Sgt. Marc Boisvert to lieutenant; Lt. John Perrotta to captain, and Capt. Robert J. Voas Jr. to major.

“They are extremely dedicated to the town – role models for the entire police department,” Polisena said of the officers. “On behalf of the citizens you protect, God bless you and keep you safe.”

Former Mayor Louis Perrotta was also on hand to watch the ceremony, and Chief Richard Tamburini echoed the sentiments of appreciation for the three officers.

“These officers have done due diligence. They’ve earned respect. I can’t think of three more deserving officers,” he said.

Lt. Marc Boisvert has been a member of the JPD since 1995. He is a past recipient of the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Community Hero Award for his work as program coordinator for the Johnston Police Explorer Post # 405.

Boisvert is certified with the International Police Mountain Bike Association and is a certified member of the Johnston Police Special Response Team. He is a member of the Johnston Police Honor Guard and is certified in accident reconstruction, federal motor carrier safety regulations and child passenger safety regulations. Boisvert has instructed at the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy. He was most recently assigned to the department’s Commercial Enforcement Unit.

A 1988 graduate of Burrillville High School, Boisvert received his bachelor’s degree from Rhode Island College in 1993. The son of Blanche Boisvert and the late Charles Boisvert, he and wife Brenda and children Collin and Brooke live in Burrillville. His colleague, Lt. John Perrotta, is a Johnston-educated officer, having graduated from Johnston High School in 1985. He graduated cum laude from Salve Regina University, with a bachelor’s degree in administration of justice in 1989. He received his Master of Science degree from Salve in 1990, and graduated from Roger Williams University School of Law in 1998, at which time he also became a member of the Rhode Island Bar Association.

Perrotta has served as the department’s first and third watch commander, a DARE officer, Elderly Affairs advocate, field-training officer and the domestic violence coordinator. Moreover, he has acted as the employee assistance coordinator, the accident review board member and as an International Brotherhood of Police Officers business agent and vice-president. He presently instructs DUI standardized field sobriety tests at the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy.

During his time of service, Perrotta has received two department ribbons, two department commendations and the Johnston Town Council life saving medal. His parents, Albert and Elaine Perrotta of Bonita Springs, Fla., pinned on his new badge. Perrotta, his wife Michelle and children Jenna and John Jr., live in Johnston.

Major Robert J. Voas Jr., joined the department in 1985, and has accrued four commendation awards along with letters of recommendation. He is the past recipient of the New England Community Police Partnership Lifetime Achievement Award, Juvenile Officer of the Year Award and the Johnston Senior Citizen R.I. Advocate Award for the Walk with COPPS Program. Among his other achievements are the R.I. Attorney General’s Justice Award in Law Enforcement, the R.I. Seed Award for Community Forrest Conservation, the Community Service Award from R.I. Big Brothers Association and the Town of Johnston Community Service Award.

Voas is a certified car seat specialist, DARE Instructor, National Crime Prevention practitioner and a class instructor at the R.I. Municipal Academy. He was appointed to the R.I. Sexual Offender Community Notification Task Force to represent the Chief of Police Association and was appointed by the Governor’s Office to the Sex Offender Board of Review.

A graduate of North Smithfield High School, he graduated cum laude from Boston College with a bachelor’s degree in political science. After completing his undergraduate study, he graduated summa cum laude from Salve Regina College with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and graduated magna cum laude from Salve Regina with a master’s degree in criminal justice.

A resident of North Providence, he was joined at the ceremony by his wife Rene; they are the parents of Robert Voas and Amanda Finnegan, and have one grandson, J.J. Voas had his badge pinned by his father, Robert Voas Sr., a retired chief of the Smithfield Police Department and a retired lieutenant of the RISP.

Voas is the program coordinator for the Johnston Police Explorer Post 405, members of which were on hand to congratulate him and the other two promoted officers.

After the ceremony, as the officers celebrated, Chief Tamburini showed a photo taken some 10 years earlier, taken at the first graduation of the Citizens Police Academy – the group photo included himself with the three officers who were promoted.

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Diane Schuler: Secret Alcoholic?

Diane Schuler had a few tokes and who knows how much booze on the last day of her life. She then drove the wrong way on a state highway, crashed headfirst into an SUV, and killed the three men in that vehicle, along with her three young nieces, her 2-year-old daughter, and herself. Her blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. A broken bottle of Absolut vodka was found under the passenger seat in the wreckage of her car.

Was she an alcoholic? Very likely. You have to have a history of drinking to walk around, let alone drive, with that kind of blood alcohol level. In any case, she is now part of a growing statistic: drunk driving is rising among women while falling among men. The FBI says that, nationally, the number of women arrested for DUI was 28.8% higher in 2007 than it was in 1998, while it was 7.5% lower for men.

And women are the ones most often driving with kids in the car. As a spokesperson for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) said: "It's the ultimate form of child abuse." And that drunk driver could be anyone. In a Chicago suburb, the daughter of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was sentenced to 18 months of court supervision after being pulled over by police for driving drunk; she had three kids in the car.

Alcohol. The great social lubricant. The two-martini client lunch, pina coladas at the family barbeque, the celebratory champagne toast, the college kegger, the cocktail party.

Alcoholism. Choosing friends because they drink. Sneaking another glass of wine when no one's looking. Finding excuses to drink. Drinking alone. Spiking coffee with vodka. Hiding bottles under the laundry. Waking up hung over.

I know it all -- the secret stashes, the coffee cup that no one questions, the quick pick-me-up(s) during the work day, the clients who would join me in a "little something" during a meeting, the pride when men would say, "Wow, you can drink me under the table."

Why can some people enjoy a daily glass of wine and never crave more than that, while others drink a bottle of wine a day and swear they're not alcoholics?

My folks didn't drink because my father had been an alcoholic who stopped drinking when I was four years old.

I started drinking when I was 15, when my roommate from boarding school invited me to spend a week in Las Vegas with her. Her mother's boyfriend took us out to dinner in a casino and ordered spiked Shirley Temples for us. In the bathroom, I looked in the mirror and asked the girl I saw there, "Who are you?" I liked her personality so much better than mine! If only I knew then who I was to become. Research shows that how people respond to their first drink indicates if they will be light drinkers or tend to abuse alcohol.


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Alleged DUI driver: 'This is what I do'

AMESBURY, Mass., Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A suspected Massachusetts drunken driver who allegedly quipped to police, 'This is what I do,' needs to be jailed, a judge says.

Jason Wetteland, 39, of Charlton, Mass., was ordered held without bond Tuesday by Newburyport District Judge Peter Doyle for his Aug. 1 arrest in Amesbury, Mass. -- Wetteland's 12th arrest on drunken-driving charges, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.

"Nothing short of incarceration will stop this (defendant) from driving," the newspaper said Doyle wrote in his order, underlining the word "nothing" four times.

Police said Wetteland refused to take a breath test or any field-sobriety tests.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Sholds quoted Wetteland as telling police, "'I'm drunk. You know it. I know it. I'm not going to deny it.' He went on to state … that he's been driving drunk for a long time … that this is what he does and that he doesn't give a (expletive) about the law."

The Globe said Wetteland's record sports 11 prior drunken-driving arrests, resulting in six convictions, and 17 charges of driving with a suspended or revoked license.


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DUI Defense Attorney Seeks Fairness, Lasting Change

Attorney Ronald F. Stevens takes on some of the toughest cases that come through the criminal court system when he represents people charged with killing someone while driving drunk.
He stands before judges with the newly accused, calmly expressing his client's remorse with the victim's grieving family and representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving watching from the audience.
In the same courtroom, Stevens knows, are family members of the accused, and their lives, too, have been shattered by drinking and driving. ”The worst thing about manslaughter cases (for the client) is not prison,” Stevens said during an interview at his law office in Niantic. “It's living with the fact that they took somebody else's life. I've represented the nicest people in the world that have killed people in a car accident.”
Many are so distraught in the aftermath of the crashes that they are put on suicide watch in prison, he said.
This spring has been particularly deadly in southeastern Connecticut, with four deaths attributed to alcohol-related crashes.
Two of Stevens' newest clients are 27-year-old Joseph Donohue and 25-year-old Christopher Brulotte. Donohue is charged with causing the Memorial Day Weekend crash that killed Danielle M. Nicholson and Joshua A. Lecce on Route 32 in Waterford. Brulotte was allegedly driving drunk on April 5 when he caused a crash on Interstate 395 that killed 59-year-old Iris Soto of Willimantic.
Stevens' law practice is not limited to drunken driving cases, but he is continually educating himself on the topic, and says his knowledge of the science behind the DUI cases has helped him represent his clients.
Stevens studied how the body absorbs, distributes and eliminates alcohol under A. Wayne Jones of Sweden, an expert on human physiology and alcohol consumption.
He trained with an out-of-state police force to administer the field sobriety tests cops use at roadside. He then took a week-long course in another state and became an instructor for the field tests.
Stevens also is a certified instructor and technician for the Intoxilyzer 5000, the breathalyzer device that police in Connecticut use to measure the blood alcohol content of suspected drunken drivers. The company that manufactures the device was loathe to train a defense attorney, so he found a recent retiree who was qualified as a trainer. Connecticut is about to start using a new breathalyzer, Stevens said, so he'll become certified on that machine as well.
He gets clients into treatment
The 63-year-old lawyer's Irish heritage shows in his rosy complexion and merry green eyes. He grew up in a “drinking family,” so he understands his clients from a personal point of view. His oldest brother died from alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver, refusing to put down the bottle even when a doctor told him it would kill him. Stevens has not had a drink in 20 years. Another brother has been sober for 16.
He tells clients some of this before he goes to work on their cases.
”What I want to do is get the best result for my client,” Stevens said. He immediately gets them into treatment, knowing it will help them out in court, but also that it is the key to “a long-term fix.” A person who goes into prison an alcoholic will come out an alcoholic, he said. He says that prison terms do not solve the problem. He would prefer the state spend the money on long-term, inpatient programs for repeat offenders.
Stevens refers some of his clients to social worker Jeanne Marshall, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor in Norwich.
”He's not just about getting them off or getting them out of trouble,” Marshall said. “He's into getting them the help they need to stay out of trouble.”
Responsibility is to client
Stevens is often on the phone with fellow attorneys Paul F. Chinigo of Norwich and Russell S. Palmer of Middletown by sunrise. All three represent DUI clients, and they bounce ideas off one another. Chinigo is representing Daniel Musser, the 24-year-old Navy sailor charged with killing Connecticut College junior Elizabeth Durante on March 7 when, allegedly under the influence, he drove the wrong way on I-395 and slammed head-on into a van in which Durante was riding.
Chinigo said he knows what it is like to be the target of anger from the victim's side, as was the case for Stevens at a recent arraignment, when somebody who had come to support the victim's family called him a “scumbag.”
”I try not to take it personally if a comment from a victim or family member helps with closure,” Chinigo said. The defense attorney's primary responsibility is to his client, but they also have to look at the full picture.
The best outcomes result “if all sides do their jobs,” said Chinigo. The prosecutor is responsible for fair play, he said. The defense attorneys have to be realistic with their clients. The judge must weigh a fair resolution.
Stevens supports blood tests
Most clients that walk into Stevens' Main Street, Niantic, office after being charged with drunken driving have not been involved in a previous accident. Many have never before been arrested for anything.
Police receive federal grants and overtime for DUI enforcement, and some officers compete to make as many arrests as they can, Stevens said.
”People think this is a great thing until they get arrested for it,” he said. He said it is the only crime where police are allowed to make an arrest based on an opinion.
”The courts in Connecticut have basically said if you have the smell of alcohol, you're going to get arrested,” he said. Police ask suspected drunken drivers to perform field sobriety tests, which are coordination exercises that Stevens said are “designed to make you fail.”
The follow-up breath or urine test the police perform is faulty, too, Stevens said. The breath test, usually administered after the suspect is taken into police headquarters, is not a good indication of a person's blood alcohol content, he said, and the results can be manipulated.
”The harder you blow, the higher the number,” he said.
Urine tests, often administered when the police think the person is under the influence of drugs, may or may not reflect what is in a person's bloodstream at the time the sample is collected, since alcohol is filtered out of blood and concentrated into the urine, he said.
Stevens said Connecticut has one of the best forensics laboratories in the country and that he would like to see blood tests performed.
Also, he said, police should be required to videotape the process, since clients can be sent to prison for DUI. And once they make an arrest, the police have “a dog in the hunt,” he said, so they make the case sound worse than it is in their police reports.
”That could have been me”
Paul, a client who asked to be identified only by his first name to spare his family from further embarrassment, said he was at “rock bottom” and in danger of losing his job when he hired Stevens after a DUI arrest last year. Stevens sent him to a counselor and kept in touch while the case was pending.
It was not a first offense, so Paul lost his license for a year and is on probation. A judge ordered him to serve 100 hours of community service and attend drug and alcohol counseling.
For the first time since he was 14, he has been sober for an entire year, Paul said.
”I continue going to AA and Ronnie stays in contact with me,” Paul said. “He definitely takes it personally.”
Paul said he cringes every time he reads of a new drunken driving fatality.
”I think, 'That could have been me,' '' he said. “I got caught five times. How many times did I drive drunk? Only God knows.”
Stevens also represented 31-year-old Miguel Lord, who is serving a three-year prison sentence for causing the crash that killed Peter Klose in East Lyme on May 14, 2006.
”He found a lawyer that wasn't playing him and spoke to him clearly and worked with him and was really making sure justice would be served, but would be fair to his client as well,” said Lord's mother, Providencia Morillo.
Lord had no criminal record, and his mother and Stevens said he is not a alcoholic. He had been drinking at two local bars before he went through a red light and rammed into Klose's car at the intersection of Industrial Park Road and Route 161. His blood-alcohol content was .16 and .17 percent - about twice the legal limit for driving - in two tests taken after the crash. Klose, a father of two young sons, died at the scene.
Lord and his family were frustrated that they could not contact Klose's widow, Pamela, to express their remorse. Stevens had instructed them not to have contact while the case was pending.
”She had no idea how we suffered for her,” Morillo said.
Lord had a trust fund that he nearly drained when he paid Mrs. Klose about $600,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit.
”He was willing to give her whatever she needed,” his mother said. “But even giving money can't bring back Mr. Klose, can't do anything for the family. It's a symbolic gesture.”
Months or years after the tense, emotional first court appearances in the DUI fatalities, Stevens once again stands beside drunken drivers at sentencing. While the client has been in prison or free on bond, Stevens has worked out a plea deal with the prosecutor's office and judge.
At the sentencing, he recounts the efforts his client made to get sober. He often calls on family members and friends to speak on the person's behalf. The court hearings almost always involve heart-rending stories of loss from the victim's family, tearful apologies from Stevens' client and strongly worded statements from judges.
Stevens said he has represented a wide range of clients in DUI cases, including a college professor, police officers and even, in one case, a member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. At one sentencing, while speaking of a first-time offender who had caused a fatal crash, he told the judge, “There but for the grace of God go you and I.”

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Lawyer says death penalty withdrawn against Fotios Geas, accused in Springfield murder of mob boss Adolfo Bruno

SPRINGFIELD - A defendant in an organized crime murder-for-hire case will go to trial in February without the death penalty hanging overhead, his lawyer confirmed.

Fotios "Freddy" Geas was charged in 2008 in U.S. District Court with the Springfield murder of mob boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno in November of 2003. The indictment piggy-backed identical charges in Hampden Superior Court issued months earlier, after the admitted gunman in the case became an informant for the government.

The decision not to seek the death penalty against Geas came early Wednesday, after months of consideration by the U.S. Justice Department.

Geas' defense lawyer David P. Hoose said that Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd E. Newhouse informed him of the decision, but offered no reasoning.

"I got the call earlier today. We're happy to hear the news," Hoose said, though the decision was hardly shocking since capital punishment is extremely rare in organized crime murder trials.

The U.S. Attorney General makes the final decision on whether to seek capital punishment in death-penalty eligible cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul H. Smyth, the head of the office in Springfield, declined to comment.

The gunman, Frankie A. Roche, had been charged alone in the state case until, on the eve of his trial in 2007, he told law enforcement officials that he was hired to shoot Bruno amid a power struggle for the region's mob-controlled rackets. The trial was averted, and Geas and another man, Brandon D. Croteau, were charged with murder in state court days later.

Roche eventually pleaded guilty to murder in federal court in May 2008, admitting he called out to Bruno in a darkened parking lot and shot him seven times. He said Geas, 42, acted as a conduit for higher-ranking gangsters and paid him $8,000 to shoot the long-standing local head of the Genovese crime family. Roche told investigators that Croteau, his former roommate, helped him get out of town after the murder.

None of the alleged higher-ups have been charged.

While Roche averted the death penalty under a plea deal with prosecutors, Geas enjoyed no such protection.

Capital punishment is not legal in Massachusetts, but certain federal crimes - including murder in aid of racketeering - can trigger capital punishment.

The announcement came a week earlier than the July 15 deadline set to render a decision on the capital punishment aspect of Geas' case. It came months after meetings in Boston and Washington between defense lawyers and Justice Department officials.

Prosecutors are prohibited from discussing the deliberations underlying the decision, but Hoose said defense lawyers urged prosecutors to reject the death penalty given the nature of the witnesses against their client.

"I think the main reason we emphasized is that most of the testimony will come from informants, and the chief (government) witness has a bad criminal record," he said, referring to Roche.

Roche, 35, was an ex-convict and merely a fringe character in organized crime circles when he was recruited to kill Bruno, according to investigators. His criminal record dated back to when he was a teen growing up in Westfield, records show, and later included convictions for assault and a tractor-trailer truck heist.

He fled the area after the shooting, investigators said, and stayed on the lam until FBI agents caught up with him in Florida in 2004. He was accidentally shot in the lower back during the arrest, and recently received a $150,000 settlement from the government.

Under his plea agreement, Roche may receive a far shorter prison sentence in exchange for his testimony.

Geas' trial in federal court is scheduled to begin Feb. 1; Newhouse estimated it will take two months to try before a jury. Geas faces life in prison if convicted.
No trial date has been set in the state case. 

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Boston, Massachusetts DUI Attorney Stephen L. Jones Joins 1800DUILaws.com

Boston, MA, July 03, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Boston, Massachusetts DUI attorney Stephen L. Jones has joined 1800DUILaws.com, the nationwide network of top drunk driving defense lawyers.Boston, Massachusetts DUI attorney Stephen L. Jones is a former prosecutor and is now a nationally recognized drunk driving attorney who has appeared on the Today Show, MSNBC, Chronicle, Inside Edition and the Discovery Channel to speak about criminal law. Boston, Massachusetts DUI / OUI attorney Stephen L. Jones has also defended several high-profile cases that have been covered on national and Boston news programs.Boston, Massachusetts DUI / OUI attorney Stephen L. Jones has successfully defended more than 1,000 Massachusetts drunk driving cases. His law practice focuses on the defense of drunk driving charges and related matters. He is well-versed in both the science and law of drunk driving defense, and will use that knowledge to aggressively challenge chemical tests, field sobriety tests, and other evidence in a Massachusetts DUI case.As the chair of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminars on drunk driving for 10 years, Boston, Massachusetts DUI / OUI attorney Stephen L. Jones is in great demand as a drunk driving defense speaker. He has spoken across the nation on subjects related to OUI/DUI and has lectured on the subject of courtroom testimony at the FBI Academy.


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Crash-texting trolley driver faces charges

The text-messaging motorman behind the smashup of two Green Line trolleys didn’t pull his emergency brake until just 8 feet separated the doomed trains, prosecutors said yesterday in announcing the indictment of Aiden Quinn.
A special grand jury investigation found Quinn, 24, of Attleboro, now facing up to three years in prison for gross negligence, was focused on his Motorola cell phone May 8 for at least 600 feet of underground track while traveling 25 mph oblivious to warning lights.
“We don’t know exactly how long it took him to travel from Point A to Point B,” said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley. “Whatever it was, it was far too long to be operating a train without looking.”
Quinn, who was allegedly messaging his girlfriend, didn’t even hit the “send” button before rear-ending the stopped train and pushing it 36 feet, Conley said.
Quinn, who the MBTA fired after the collision that injured 62 passengers and caused $9 million in property damage, is not under arrest, but will be arraigned July 20 in Suffolk Superior Court.
The T and the National Transportation Safety Board blamed the accident on human error. It also prompted the T to ban employees from carrying cell phones.
Attorney Michelle Menken said Quinn is “deeply remorseful” and unable to work due to the wrist he shattered in the crash.
“If there was a lapse of judgment on his part it takes a lot to rise to the level of gross negligence,” she said. “He’s not a criminal.”

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