A Trinity, Florida man awaiting trial in a DUI manslaughter where his wife was the victim was rearrested on another DUI in Palm Harbor, Florida.
Phillip Billitteri was arrested in September, 2010 for DUI manslaughter stemming from an April 2010 accident where he made a left turn into his own subdivision and was hit by an oncoming pick up truck. His wife, in the passenger's seat, was killed. (See St. Peterburg Times article)
Last week in downtown Palm Harbor, he was again driving and hit two women who were crossing the street causing pretty severe injuries. (See St. Petersburg Times)
This completely tragic story brings up several legal issues. The first is that when the State Attorney's Office in Pasco County, learned of the new arrest in Pinellas, they asked the judge to revoke his $10,000 bond. She did. This means that even though he had bonded himself out on the Pasco DUI manslaughter charge, he now has no bond. This is common, since a condition of anyone's bond is that they have no new arrests. Interestingly, most judges when realeasing someone on a DUI, will tell the person that a condition of their bond is to drink no alcohol. Not all judges say it, and of course it's impossible to monitor. But at the time of Mr. Billitteri's arrest in Pasco County, he never saw a judge. It looks like the warrant was issued for his arrest and he did what's called a "walk through" with a bailbondsman. That means, he was booked into the jail and realeased immediately. With only a $10,000 bond - on a DUI manslaughter. Those of you who have ever been arrested on drug charges will realize how low of a bond this is. That's the second issue - how low the bonds are on charges where if the person is released there's a real threat of harm to the community - like DUI or domestic battery. We've all seen bonds double or triple this for felony drug charges. Why?
On the new Pinellas County charge his bond was only $5000. Interestingly, no judge in that case advised him that he should drink no alcohol. When the Pinellas case was transferred from traffic court to felony court, he was issued a SCRAM monitor. That's the ankle monitor that allegedly goes off if the person consumes alcohol - even mouthwash.
Pawuk & Pawuk handles alot of DUI cases - and this tradgedy, that someone released on such a low bond, and then go out and drink and drive while, injuring other people AGAIN - is one of my greatest fears. I'm sure this man feels horrible. My heart goes out to him and his family. However, I think at this point, the only safe place for this guy is jail.
