Visalia Criminal Law Blog

Vince Vaughn was taken into custody by California police on drunk driving charges during the early morning hours of June 10. The 'Wedding Crashers" and 'Hacksaw Ridge" star has also been charged with resisting, obstructing or delaying officers, according to a Manhattan Beach Police Department representative. The sequence of events unfolded when Vaughn's car approached a DUI sobriety checkpoint in Manhattan Beach at approximately 12:30 a.m.

Media accounts do not indicate what led officers to suspect that the 48-year-old actor was operating his vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, but they do reveal that both Vaughn and his male passenger were uncooperative and refused to exit the car when ordered to do so. However, officers at the scene were quick to point out that the situation did not escalate beyond raised voices and no force was needed to subdue Vaughn.

A board member for the Bay Area Rapid Transit System wants to change California law to stop rampant drug use inside transit stations and elevators. Under her proposal, individuals caught using hypodermic needles within the transit system could be charged with a felony and sentenced to up to 18 months in jail.

On May 22, a San Francisco TV station aired a photo of a man shooting up drugs in a BART system elevator. The board member says that such situations are becoming increasingly common and are a public safety issue for transit riders and employees alike. She claims that the state's current drug laws are too lax on drug abusers.

Civil rights groups have questioned the constitutionality of DUI checkpoints, but they remain permissible under California law. Police departments say that high visibility enforcement techniques such as DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols deter irresponsible behavior and make the roads safer, and these arguments are supported by studies revealing that such checkpoints, when they are well-publicized, have been found to reduce drunk driving accidents by as much as 20 percent.

Media outlets have reported that a DUI checkpoint will be held in Marin County. The Novato Police Department say that they will be checking vehicles for intoxicated drivers between 6:00 p.m. on May 18 and 1:00 a.m. on May 19. The location of the checkpoint was not revealed, but a NPD representative said that it would be conducted at a known accident and drunk driving hot spot. Police say that they will also be checking driver's licenses during the seven-hour operation, which is being funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety.

A 39-year-old California man entered a guilty plea in federal court on May 2 for engaging in a conspiracy to distribute large quantities of illegal drugs by offering them on the so-called "dark web". The man also admitted to laundering illicit drug money by purchasing cryptocurrencies. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies.

According to the prosecutors who are handling the case, the man faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The man admitted that he bought and sold drugs on the dark web from 2014 until he was arrested in June 2017. He used several different anonymous handles to engage in illegal drug transactions on several dark web marketplaces.