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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Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
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.”
Source
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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