Taking The "D" Out Of DUI

Open for business indeed. Look for a big bump in fines now that the West Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that you don't have to prove a drunk has been driving to charge him or her with DUI.

Wait....what?

Doesn't DUI stand for "Driving Under The Influence"?

Yes, it does...but the West Virginia Supremes say that you don't need proof, just "reasonable grounds to believe" that an intoxicated person found in a motor vehicle was operating it. 

There's no explanation of the dividing line, if any, between "reasonable grounds to believe", "circumstantial evidence" and "wild guess".

Full details (including a .pdf of the court's ruling from TheNewspaper.com.

April Is Drunk Teen In A Cop Car Month

It's a coast-to-coast celebration...last week in Florida, and this time around, Oregon.

The Florida mug shot wins, but the suspect names...well, Nikita Efimov just sounds a lot more mysterious than Tasha Lee Cantrell.

Underage Drinking...Inside A Police Car

Some people just don't hear the wake-up call when it rings.

The young woman above is 19-year old Tasha Lee Cantrell. She was a passenger in a friend's car and when that friend was pulled over, arrested for DUI and the car towed, Tasha Lee asked an Okaloosa County Florida Sheriff's deputy if she could have a ride home. He said yes, she hopped in, and popped open a can of Steel Reserve malt liquor.

Blowing right past the open container issue, the deputy arrested Tasha Lee on underage drinking charges. But from the photo above, she seems okay with that.

Full story at The Smoking Gun.