In March, our Lake Forest DUI criminal defense attorneys wrote about an Orange County sheriff's deputy who was arrested for intoxicated driving after causing two separate accidents about a half hour apart. That now-former deputy, Allan James Waters, was arrested and criminally charged June 9 in connection with the second accident. Waters was off duty and on paid administrative leave at the time of the crashes and is no longer working for the Sheriff's Department. He is accused of being intoxicated by prescription drugs when he ran his car into oncoming traffic, forcing a Toyota and his own car into a tree. The crash hurt Dolores Huerta, 78, who sustained a back injury and has since undergone surgery. Waters is also charged with drug crimes not directly connected to the crash.
An article about the arrest in the Los Angeles Times starts with the first accident Waters was involved in. On March 1 of this year, he rear-ended a car stopped for a red light in Dana Point. Orange County Sheriff's Deputies came to the scene and took an accident report, but did not arrest Waters. Deputies knew Waters was another deputy, the article said, but a sheriff's spokesman said they did not see any objective signs of intoxication. After leaving that scene, however, Waters drove so erratically that other motorists called 911 to report him. Shortly afterward, he crossed into oncoming traffic and hit Huerta's car. This time, sheriff's deputies called the California Highway Patrol to handle the accident, and the CHP found objective signs of intoxication.
Testing later showed that Waters was under the influence of prescription drugs Hydrocodone and Zolpidem. In fact, an investigation by the sheriff's department found that he had been selling a white powder meant to resemble cocaine in order to support his prescription drug habit. Waters is now charged with felony driving under the influence causing bodily injury, two felony counts of selling a substance in lieu of cocaine, with a sentence enhancement for causing great bodily injury. He faces up to seven years and four months in prison.
Most of the articles about this arrest focus on the possibility of wrongdoing by Orange County sheriff's deputies responding to the first crash, who may have let Waters go because he was a fellow deputy, not because he was sober enough to drive. Some readers might suggest that the outcome might have been much better for Huerta if the first set of deputies had detailed Waters rather than let him go on driving. But as Temecula drunk driving criminal defense lawyers, we believe the outcome would also have been better for Waters. A DUI charge is not a trivial thing, as law enforcement officers know all too well. But by letting Waters go, officers allowed him to cause the second accident, which not only got Waters in legal trouble, but also -- and more importantly -- injured an elderly woman. Now Waters faces a felony DUI with great bodily injury, a serious charge with substantial prison time, rather than a simple DUI that, if it was his first, would be unlikely to result in a prison sentence.
Howard Law, P.C. defends Californians of all backgrounds and walks of life from DUI charges. A conviction for a first intoxicated driving charge in California means losing your driver's license, thousands of dollars in fines, alcohol classes, community service and jail or probation. In addition to creating a criminal record and being embarrassing and inconvenient, this can have detrimental effects on your life if you need to drive regularly to meet work, school or family obligations. Our Huntington Beach intoxicated driving criminal defense attorneys help clients avoid these negative consequences. Police officers make mistakes, and some of those mistakes can get your case dismissed or charges substantially reduced. When appropriate, we can also negotiate a lower, more appropriate charge in exchange for a guilty plea.
If you're charged with drunk driving in California, you should call Howard Law, P.C. to learn more about your rights and your legal options. You can send us an email or call 1-800-872-5925 today for a free, confidential evaluation of your case.
