DUI Dishonor Roll

William O'Neil, age 24, stands before Judge John Payne

Amazingly Amherst police did not make a single DUI arrest over the New Year's holiday weekend, normally peak time for drunk driving. Hadley however, had a doozy:

   Egregious New Year DUI

DUI Dishonor Roll

Amherst police arrested and charged three drivers with drunk driving over the weekend -- all of them women.  In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday all three lawyered up and had their cases continued until next month.

All three also took the legally admissible Breathalyzer test back at APD headquarters, so their chances of outright winning a trial are pretty close to zero

Interestingly Meaghan Shea initially seemed like she wanted to settle her case immediately, telling Judge Payne, "I know I'm guilty."  But he had her talk to the prosecutor and she then opted to have a public defender assigned to her.

Meaghan Shea, age 29, arraigned before Judge Payne

 Click to enlarge/read.  Note BAC is 3x legal limit!

Heather Pew, age 21, stands before Judge Payne

Carrie Holmes, age 22 (and father) stand before Judge Payne

DUI Dishonor Roll

In Eastern Hampshire District Court Monday both college aged youth -- one arrested by APD and the other by UMPD -- had their cases continued until next month so they could hire their own private attorney.

 Jackson Schroeder, age 21, stands before Judge Patricia Poehler

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Mr. Schroeder submitted to the Breathalyzer so he should probably save his money and take the standard state offer of a 24D disposition. 

Mr. Fidler probably has a better shot of beating the driving under the influence of drugs charge (but not all the others) simply because there are no standard Breathalyzer tests available for detecting drugs.

 Zachary Fidler, age 20, arraigned by Judge Patricia Pohler

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DUI Dishonor Roll

Police took four alleged drunk drivers off the road over the weekend -- two in Amherst and two in Hadley -- and three of the four consented to a breath test, of which the results clearly shows why they were arrested.

All four were arraigned before Judge Payne in Eastern Hampshire District Court and had their cases continued over the next six weeks.

Venetia Fotopulos 

Keri Quinlan

Kathryn Agalar

Jenna Gagnon

DUI Dishonor Roll

Michael Ketcham, age 25, stands before Judge Payne

Both APD impaired driver arrests last weekend submitted to breath tests that showed they were too much under the influence of alcohol to be driving, but then one of them changed his mind and refused to take the official chemical breath test back at the station, which is admissible in District Court.

 Click to enlarge/read

 Portable Breath Test result of .114 is inadmissible in Court

As a result Michael Ketcham will automatically lose his license for 180 days.  But he did tell Judge Payne he would be hiring his own attorney for his next pre-trial hearing in January.

And a DUI attorney loves it when you refuse the official chemical breath test because that obstinacy cannot be mentioned to a jury should the case go to trial.

Jacob Bodee, age 21, stands before Judge Payne

Since Mr. Bodee did take the official chemical breath test back at the station he should simply take the standard state offer of a 24D disposition and save himself an expensive attorney fee.

Click to enlarge/read

DUI Dishonor Roll

Kaitlyn Vahey, age 19, stands before Judge William O'Grady

As usual I'll let the public court documents speak for themselves but would again point out that a rear end collision caused by driving with a blood alcohol concentration almost twice that of the legal limit, on Main Street at 4:12 PM, in the busy college town of Amherst, could easily have resulted in the death of a pedestrian or cyclist.

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Patrick Homyak, age 26, arraigned before Judge O'Grady

Interestingly enough, a police Statement of Facts cuts both ways.

Safe bet Leandro Celadilla's attorney will point out the BAC showed .06 which is a tad under the legal limit of .08. But the Commonwealth does not exclusively rely on the Breath Test results, although one over the limit pretty much makes prosecution a slam dunk.

 Mr. Celadilla was in lock up so no photo available

And since Mr. Celadilla was also charged in the same incident with domestic abuse (but that Court document is impounded) the state will still have plenty to bargain with when his case comes up for pre trial next month.

DUI Dishonor Roll

Just to show how extraordinary three cases of heroin OD over a 1.5 hour period Sunday night was, Amherst Police arrested only one impaired driver over the entire weekend.  Hadley PD also bagged one. 

AFD & APD responding to a North Amherst Apartment complex for yet another heroin overdose, 3rd separate one this evening.

— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) November 16, 2015

 Thornton Benjamin, age 20, arraigned before Judge Payne

Both had a plea of not guilty entered in their behalf, and will return to Eastern Hampshire District Court on December 10th with their private attorneys.

Rachasima Tran, age 22, arraigned before Judge Payne

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DUI Dishonor Roll

Brittani N. Allen, age 24, stands before Judge John Payne

About the only good news concerning the 28 APD arrests over the Halloween weekend is only one of them was for (allegedly) drunk driving.

Of course the other way of looking at it is APD was so busy dealing with party houses, fights, and zombie herds of college aged youth traipsing about the neighborhoods adjoining UMass, that they really did not have the time to watch for drunk drivers.

In a packed Eastern Hampshire District Court Ms. Allen had a plea of "not guilty" entered in her behalf and her case was continued until next month.

2nd Chances

 706 South East Street 10:00 PM  (9/1/14)

706 South East Street today:  "Barricaded in our homes"

As a matter of equal parts expediency for the Commonwealth and fairness for a 1st time offender our state in its infinite wisdom came up with the standard 24D disposition for the all too numerous Operating Under the Influence cases that occur in Massachusetts.

Yes everybody -- except perhaps murderers and pedophiles -- deserves a second chance.  Let the first among us who has never driven after having had a few sips too many cast the first beer bottle.

 Ailton Correia (left) with Attorney Fred Chamberland

In Eastern Hampshire District Court today after about 20 minutes of testimony that included a compelling witness impact statement Judge Payne looked at at Ailton Correia and said, "I am going to agree with this plea deal as I hope this incident was only a bump in the road -- no pun intended."

But he then went on to add 50 hours of community service, attendance at "Brains At Risk" program and alcohol screens for the duration of his one year probation.

The 24D all by itself costs $2,587.76

 Standard 24D disposition fees/fines

Although Judge Payne did waive the first four months of $65 probation payments so Mr. Correia could pay restitution of $295.40 for a neighborhood cat that was killed by flying debris.

As is standard procedure the Commonwealth presented the facts to Judge Payne first, which would have been used against Correia had the case gone to trial.

ADA Bob Opsitnik said the car -- a 1998 gray Honda civic -- was traveling south on South East street at a very high rate of speed, lost control over the hill, crashed into a tree and ended up against the front door of a brick house.

A young woman (his cousin) was ejected from the vehicle and ended up screaming on the front lawn.  The driver (Correia) and his passenger were both transported to Baystate Medical Center.   He suffered a broken leg.

An Amherst police officer noticed the driver had bloodshot glassy eyes and the odor of stale alcohol.

Since blood was drawn at the hospital during the course of Correia's treatment, the state requested a BAC test which converted to between .87 and .09 Blood Alcohol Concentration (legal limit is .08).

Defense Attorney Fred Chamberland told Judge Payne his client is a student at Greenfield Community College who worked two jobs up until the time of the accident.  Since he suffered a broken leg he had to give up his job with UPS.

The defense hired two expert witnesses who would have testified that his Blood Alcohol Concentration was between .07 and .08 and the car was traveling at around 50 MPH.

 Janet McGowan, after waiting 3.75 hours, addressed Judge Payne

But Janet McGowan told Judge Payne it was more in the 80-90 MPH range as she described the roar of an engine unlike any she has heard before on her busy street.  And she brought a poster sized blow up of the mangled vehicle that blocked her front door.

 Judge Payne examining mangled car photo

The Judge said, "That looks like more than 50 MPH" as he perused the picture.  He went on to say he lives on a somewhat busy street and he knows the sounds cars make.  "You know the difference between 50-60 MPH and 80-90 MPH ... It's an extraordinary sound.  You can't make that up."

Looking directly at Correia Judge Payne told him he was, "Extraordinarily lucky.  You could have killed a person instead of a cat."

When adding the extra 50 extra hours of community service Judge Payne said he wanted it to be dealing with people who have suffered traumatic brain injury, maybe Wounded Warriors for instance.  That way he can see the consequences of a serious accident.

Finally Judge Payne suggested Correia meet with Janet McGowan and her husband to apologize for the disruption he brought to their lives that night.

A disruption that today, over a year later, still lingers.

DUI Victim Impact Statement

DUI Dishonor Roll

Sean Moran, age 24, arraigned before Judge John Payne

Amherst police arrested three (relatively) young men over the "Homecoming" weekend.  All of them were charged with drunk driving, and all three told Judge Payne they would be hiring their own attorney so he continued their cases until next month.

Two of the three -- Sean Moran and Kevin Nadeau -- refused to take the Breathalyzer test which could be a sign that they have been down this road before.  And Mr. Moran, after hitting a crowded PVTA bus, also assaulted a police officer.

Click to enlarge/read

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Kevin Nadeau also had problems piloting his vehicle.  In fact, he rolled it over on Sunderland Road, North Amherst.  Fortunately no residents were walking about in zombie herds as college aged youth sometimes do.

Kevin Nadeau, age 26, stands before Judge John Payne

Refusing the Breathalyzer results in automatic loss of license for 180 days

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Anthony Cardullo, age 22, arraigned before Judge Payne

Anthony Cardullo blew through a stop sign on South East Street on to Main Street and was arrested for that failure to stop, as well as for operating under the influence of alcohol which of course contributed to his bad driving.

Mr. Cardullo did take the legally admissible breathalyzer back at APD headquarters with the results of .12 or 1.5 times the legal limit.

Tellingly, Assistant District Attorney Bob Opsitnik confirms he has never lost a drunk driving case over the past year that has gone to trial where a legally admissible breathalyzer was in play.