Boston, Massachusetts DUI attorney Stephen L. Jones is ready to fight your drunk driving charge in Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester counties.
Boston, Massachusetts DUI attorney Stephen L. Jones is a former prosecutor and is now a nationally recognized drunk driving attorney who has appeared on the Today Show, MSNBC, Chronicle, Inside Edition and the Discovery Channel to speak about criminal law. Boston, Massachusetts DUI / OUI attorney Stephen L. Jones has also defended several high-profile cases that have been covered on national and Boston news programs.
Boston, Massachusetts DUI / OUI attorney Stephen L. Jones has successfully defended more than 1,000 Massachusetts drunk driving cases. His law practice focuses on the defense of drunk driving charges and related matters. He is well-versed in both the science and law of drunk driving defense, and will use that knowledge to aggressively challenge chemical tests, field sobriety tests, and other evidence in a Massachusetts DUI case.
As the chair of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminars on drunk driving for 10 years, Boston, Massachusetts DUI / OUI attorney Stephen L. Jones is in great demand as a drunk driving defense speaker. He has spoken across the nation on subjects related to OUI/DUI and has lectured on the subject of courtroom testimony at the FBI Academy.
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Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Police say driver in sixth DUI had brandy in his lap
NEWBURYPORT - A Charlton man pleaded not guilty in Newburyport District Court yesterday to what was at least his 10th drunken-driving charge, after he almost hit another car while swerving across heavy traffic with a bottle of brandy between his legs, police said.
Jason W. Wetteland, 39, was held without bail, and his driver’s license, which had not been valid since 2003, was permanently revoked.
According to a police report, Wetteland had been exiting northbound Interstate 495 onto Route 110 in Amesbury about 7:30 p.m. Saturday when Amesbury police officer Carl LeSage noticed Wetteland’s Ford Explorer swerving.
Wetteland turned a hard right into the entrance of a gas station, slowed to nearly a stop, then turned a hard left back into traffic, causing several cars behind him to slam on their brakes, according to the report.
When LeSage pulled Wetteland’s car over, he saw a bottle of brandy between the man’s legs and observed that Wetteland “had bloodshot and glassy eyes, and his speech was slurred,’’ the report said.
When Officer Raymond Landry arrived to assist LeSage and searched Wetteland’s car, he retrieved a 12-pack of Bud Light beer on the passenger floorboard containing eight unopened cans and a half-full beer can, and the open bottle of Mr. Boston Blackberry Flavored Brandy, police said.
Wetteland told Landry that he had been driving to visit a friend in Salisbury. According to the report, he refused to submit to a sobriety test, saying, “I’m drunk, you know it, and I am not going to deny it.’’
When Landry asked Wetteland if he “thought it was a joke to drive drunk,’’ according to the report, Wetteland told him, “I’ve been doing this all along; this is what I do.’’
Wetteland was taken to the Essex County House of Correction in Middleton, where he had been held on $1 million cash bail until yesterday’s arraignment.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, about one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of drunken driving are repeat offenders, and drunk drivers with previous convictions have more than four times the risk of being in a fatal crash as other drunk drivers.
“Every couple of years, you come across someone with a horrible record like this, and why they’re still out, we don’t know,’’ said Amesbury Lieutenant Mark Gagnon. “This should get him some time off the road, because he doesn’t seem to get the message, despite the fact that he has no license.’’
In Massachusetts, Wetteland has had six drunken driving convictions, the first in 1988 and the last in 2001.
Beginning in 1991, his license was suspended for 10 years after he was convicted of drunken driving in Spencer. Between 1991 and 2001, when his license was reinstated, his record shows several other violations, including two speeding tickets in Massachusetts and two drunken driving arrests in Connecticut.
Wetteland’s additional license suspensions for those violations were served concurrently with his 10-year suspension, said Ann Dufresne, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Dufresne said that after Wetteland’s last conviction for drunken driving in 2001, he was only suspended for one year “because at that time the drunk driving laws were not as strict as they are today.’’
He was arrested at least one more time in Massachusetts, in Charlton in 2003 on drunken driving charges, but was found not guilty.
However, because he had refused to take a breath analysis test during that arrest, his license was suspended.
Dufresne said there was not much the Registry could have done to prevent his most recent violation.
“He chose to drive without a license, just like he chose to drink and drive,’’ she said.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Essex District Attorney Nathaniel Sears. If convicted, Wetteland faces up to five years in state prison, with a minimum sentence of two years, according to Steve O’Connell, spokesman for the Essex district attorney.
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Jason W. Wetteland, 39, was held without bail, and his driver’s license, which had not been valid since 2003, was permanently revoked.
According to a police report, Wetteland had been exiting northbound Interstate 495 onto Route 110 in Amesbury about 7:30 p.m. Saturday when Amesbury police officer Carl LeSage noticed Wetteland’s Ford Explorer swerving.
Wetteland turned a hard right into the entrance of a gas station, slowed to nearly a stop, then turned a hard left back into traffic, causing several cars behind him to slam on their brakes, according to the report.
When LeSage pulled Wetteland’s car over, he saw a bottle of brandy between the man’s legs and observed that Wetteland “had bloodshot and glassy eyes, and his speech was slurred,’’ the report said.
When Officer Raymond Landry arrived to assist LeSage and searched Wetteland’s car, he retrieved a 12-pack of Bud Light beer on the passenger floorboard containing eight unopened cans and a half-full beer can, and the open bottle of Mr. Boston Blackberry Flavored Brandy, police said.
Wetteland told Landry that he had been driving to visit a friend in Salisbury. According to the report, he refused to submit to a sobriety test, saying, “I’m drunk, you know it, and I am not going to deny it.’’
When Landry asked Wetteland if he “thought it was a joke to drive drunk,’’ according to the report, Wetteland told him, “I’ve been doing this all along; this is what I do.’’
Wetteland was taken to the Essex County House of Correction in Middleton, where he had been held on $1 million cash bail until yesterday’s arraignment.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, about one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of drunken driving are repeat offenders, and drunk drivers with previous convictions have more than four times the risk of being in a fatal crash as other drunk drivers.
“Every couple of years, you come across someone with a horrible record like this, and why they’re still out, we don’t know,’’ said Amesbury Lieutenant Mark Gagnon. “This should get him some time off the road, because he doesn’t seem to get the message, despite the fact that he has no license.’’
In Massachusetts, Wetteland has had six drunken driving convictions, the first in 1988 and the last in 2001.
Beginning in 1991, his license was suspended for 10 years after he was convicted of drunken driving in Spencer. Between 1991 and 2001, when his license was reinstated, his record shows several other violations, including two speeding tickets in Massachusetts and two drunken driving arrests in Connecticut.
Wetteland’s additional license suspensions for those violations were served concurrently with his 10-year suspension, said Ann Dufresne, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Dufresne said that after Wetteland’s last conviction for drunken driving in 2001, he was only suspended for one year “because at that time the drunk driving laws were not as strict as they are today.’’
He was arrested at least one more time in Massachusetts, in Charlton in 2003 on drunken driving charges, but was found not guilty.
However, because he had refused to take a breath analysis test during that arrest, his license was suspended.
Dufresne said there was not much the Registry could have done to prevent his most recent violation.
“He chose to drive without a license, just like he chose to drink and drive,’’ she said.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Essex District Attorney Nathaniel Sears. If convicted, Wetteland faces up to five years in state prison, with a minimum sentence of two years, according to Steve O’Connell, spokesman for the Essex district attorney.
Source
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