A 22-year-old UCSD Graduate has been arrested for felony DUI after being involved in an accident.
The man was arrested last week for driving under the influence. The arrest is related to a pedestrian accident that occurred in Santa Barbara. The accused was driving a car when he struck a man who was crossing the street. The man suffered life-threatening injuries, and had to be rushed to the hospital.
Alcohol tests were administered to the accused, and he registered at .11, which is higher than the maximum permissible limit of .08% in California. Blood test results are still pending, so it is not yet clear whether drugs were also involved in this particular accident.
DUI charges become automatically more serious when they involve felonies, or involve injuries. In California, a motorist who causes injury to another person because of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, is often charged with felony DUI. While these kinds of offenses can be charged as felony or misdemeanor offenses, they are usually charged as felony DUI causing injury, and not misdemeanor DUI causing injury.
A felony DUI is the most serious DUI-related offense, and penalties can include hefty jail sentences. In order for prosecutors prove that you are guilty of driving under the influence and causing injury, they are required to prove that you were driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, that you operated the vehicle in a negligent manner and that another person was injured as a result of that negligence.
However, an experienced Los Angeles DUI lawyer can help get those felony DUI charges reduced to misdemeanor charges. That means that the potential penalties that you're looking at are automatically lowered.
