millerboycott.com

College students attending East Carolina University or Pitt Community College may know someone who has used a fake identification at one point or another. However, many students may not be aware that simply possessing a fake ID is considered a crime under North Carolina law. Use of a fake ID, like possessing one, can not only lead to criminal charges, but a criminal record if a person is convicted of the charge.

Agents from the North Carolina Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement recently conducted a crackdown on underage drinking in another part of the state after a student attending Appalachian State died from an alcohol-related incident in September. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety released data this week from the recent underage drinking probe in the high country area.

ALE agents arrested 103 people on alcohol related offenses during the investigation. Some of the people arrested were charged with multiple offenses, as officials accuse the 103 people of 155 total charges. Authorities say that among the 155 charges filed against underage drinkers, more than 30 fake IDs that officials claim were purchased online were taken from people under the age of 21. Other people were found to be using actual IDs that authorities believe were borrowed from friends or acquaintances during the investigation. 

The recent Department of Public Safety announcement indicates that many of the arrests involved allegations of underage drinking or possession of alcohol. However, some people were charged with using a fake ID, or aiding and abetting underage consumption or possession of alcohol offenses.

Generally, a person need not necessarily be present at a party to face an alcohol-related offense under North Carolina law. While a recent news report does not indicate the details surrounding each of the arrests, a person may face aiding and abetting charges without even being present where underage drinking is alleged.

Source: WFMY News 2, “100+ Arrested In Underage Drinking Sting In Boone Area,” March 11, 2013

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

Jurors hearing Mark Stobbe’s murder trial have been told his cross-examination by the Crown will likely come to an end Thursday afternoon — capping nearly five full days of testimony from the accused killer.

Manitoba stories

So far this week The Century Council has visited five different schools with five different Congressmen and logged over 2,000 miles on the road. We’ve had a great time and are excited to have so many new kids join the Ask, Listen, Learn team!

Today, Congressman Charlie Dent (R-PA) met us at Frances D. Raub Middle School in Allentown, PA to introduce Ask, Listen, Learn to the school’s 6th and 7th grade students. They were all really excited to hear the congressman speak and to play the game. Congressman Dent even decided to play the game himself!

We’d like to say thanks to Congressman Dent, Principal Susan Elliot and all of the students at Frances D. Raub Middle School for their enthusiasm and for making today’s stop so great.

This has been a great week so far and we are looking at capping it off with another event in the West on Friday. We will be visiting Glendale Intermediate School in Salth Lake City, Utah with Attorney General Shurtleff. It should be another great event!

Century Council Blog

A Manitoba man has admitted responsibility for a
decade old fire that destroyed one of Steinbach’s most
beloved landmarks.
Manitoba stories

If you are accused of DUI or DWI, a reading results in a legal presumption of guilt; if charged with driving with a blood-alcohol content of .08% or higher, the machine is the only evidence of blood-alcohol.  In essence, either way you will be facing a "trial by machine".

So how good are these machines?  Good enough to constitute "proof beyond a reasonable doubt"?  Or are they just "close enough for government work"?

As regular readers know, one of my pet peeves is the unreliability and inaccuracy of breathalyzers (or, more accurately, any of the various breath testing models sold by a handful of manufacturers).  See, for example, Breath Alcohol Testing: "State of the Art?, Why Breathalyzers Don’t Measure Alcohol and Report: Breathalyzers Outdated, Unstable, Unreliable. 
 

D.C. Attorney General Drops Drunk Driving Cases

Wash. DC.  Feb. 8 — The District’s attorney general has dropped dozens of drunken driving cases since Jan. 31 and hundreds of others could be dropped as the police department shuts down its troubled alcohol breath-test program. Problems dating back more than three years with the city’s breath analyzers were first revealed in February 2010, when it was discovered the machines’ results were inaccurate. Since then, the D.C. medical examiner’s office has refused to sign off on the accuracy tests of new analysis machines, officials said.

"The alcohol breath-analysis program? It doesn’t exist anymore," said Ilmar Paegle, who discovered problems with the Intoxilyzer 5000s soon after he took over the city’s breath-analysis program on Feb. 1, 2010. Paegle’s contract ended last week. As he left, he said, the police department pulled off the street the Intoximeter, which replaced the Intoxilyzer last spring. "It’s a royal mess," Paegle said.

A spokeswoman for D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan said he couldn’t be pulled from a meeting to comment Tuesday. Nathan dropped eight more drunken driving cases Tuesday.

City policy requires the medical examiner’s office to certify the program, and it has not done so, citing concerns raised by the problems with the previous models, Paegle said. Although officers had been using the Intoximeters, the results were not being included as evidence, according to Paegle and internal police e-mails obtained by The Washington Examiner.

The medical examiner’s office declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Dozens of defendants have sued the city after being convicted on potentially faulty breath-test results.

Assistant police Chief Patrick Burke said officers are now taking urine samples to test blood alcohol levels for potential future prosecutions.

Meanwhile, the two police officers who account for a third of the city’s 1,400 annual drunken driving arrests have had their trial testimony called into question. They are the subjects of an internal affairs investigation that began after they spoke out about problems with the breath analyzers.

Officers Jose Rodriguez and Andrew Zabavsky learned that the medical examiner hadn’t signed off on the program and began mentioning that in their trial testimony last spring, according to an e-mail from Zabavsky to police Chief Cathy Lanier. Later in the spring, the attorney general’s office began an investigation into the officers, saying a woman they arrested for driving under the influence in June 2009 had complained the two watched her take a urine test.

In December, the case was turned over to internal affairs.

"On a day-by-day basis, cases are being dismissed because the officers involved are being investigated," said defense lawyer Bryan Brown.

The result, police union chief Kris Baumann said, is "our ability to enforce DUI laws in the District has been crippled".

The breathalyzers involved are the most commonly used across the country.  Do you really think only those in Washington D.C. are giving false results? 

DUI BLOG

Residents of the Red River Valley should brace themselves for a flood this spring, but just how much bracing they’ll need to do depends largely on the weather over the next two or three months.

Winnipeg Sun – Manitoba

Nearly 400 pigs had to be euthanized after being rescued last June from a southern Manitoba hog barn where they were allegedly surrounded by hazards and filth, “confined in near darkness” and deprived of veterinary care, according to court documents.

Winnipeg Sun – Manitoba

The national effort combines a publicity campaign, increased patrols and high-visibility

By Jack Moran
The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009

’Tis the season for celebration. But every year around now, plenty of people drink at holiday parties, then get behind the wheel when they probably shouldn’t.

GO READ THE ARTICLE: http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/24261599-41/oregon-police-state-drivers-intoxicated.csp

MADD Oregon News