Pinellas County Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

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. 

There's two parts to this blog:

One has to do with how quickly a regular person, just like you and me, can end up in prison.  Circuit Judge Wayne Timmerman sentenced a 45 year old man to 50 years in prison for the killing of 3 people in a 2000 DUI crash.  The man got 15 years for each death to run CONSECUTIVELY and 5 years in the injury of a passenger of the car.  As most of you know, almost all prison sentenced run concurrently.  It is very rare for a judge to stack sentences. 

What the defendant said during sentencing is perhaps the most succinct way to explain why these crimes keep occuring:  "one of the real problems with this is that you just don't think it's going to happen to you and that's really why it's still happening."    Here's the link to the St. Pete Times video of the sentencing

The other part of this blog has to do with a plug for a company called Zingo. (click this link, they have a very entertaining website)  It's a genius business where a guy shows up with a little  folding scooter, puts it into your car, and drives you home in your own car.  It costs the same as a cab, and in the morning your car is in the driveway.  I have no idea why more people don't know about this.  They have a service in Tampa, Pinellas, and Pasco counties. 

With the average DUI costing around $2500, not including attorney fees and increased insurance, and the average DUI manslaughter defendant getting 15 years in prison - isn't a $50 cab ride worth it? 

The next time you are considering driving after a few drinks, ask yourself if you have $10,000 to spare.  DUI's in Florida are EXPENSIVE. 

First there are court costs, which have gone up significantly in the past few years.  Then there are costs of probation, cost of DUI school, cost to have your driver's license reinstated (click here for DHSMV reinstatements), cost of the ignition interlock control device (click here for pricing), cost to maintain the device, cost to get to work because your driver's license is suspened, increased insurance premiums, costs of alcohol treatment and evaluation.  Notice I didn't include cost of an attorney.  My husband, Daniel Pawuk, who has significant DUI trial experience starts at about $2000.

Here's something to think about, I got this ad from a former client who now owns a cab service:  

In an article yesterday from the St. Petersburg Times, it seems that St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Deveron Gibbon's does have a clean driving record.  The paper printed it wrong in an article from Sunday's paper. 

I personally have my own issues with the Times and their lack of fact checking as well as their one sided approach to journalism.  But the July 8, 2009 article brings up a good point:  Driving records recieved from either the Clerk of Court, or the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles are often incorrect or misleading.  Which causes problems for people when they apply for jobs, get background checks, or ultimately have their licenses suspended based on incorrect information. 

What should you do about it?  Check your driver's license regularly at the DHSMV website and if you think the information is wrong, call us.  We can't guarentee we can fix it, but our motto is:  "the fix it firm." 

Florida law enforcement agencies use a breath testing device called the Intoxilyzer 8000 to measure an arrested person's blood alcohol concentration and secure evidence to convict citizens of DUI.  Does this small machine accurately measure how drunk you are?  Why is it supposed to be more accurate than the machine previously used, the Intoxilyzer 5000?  Was that machine accurate if it was replaced?

The science behind breath testing offers insight into the shortcomings of the breath testing machine.  Issues such as the following: 

 
Did my partition ratio differ from the 2100:1 standard used in the Intoxilyzer 8000's software?

Was there another chemical in my breath which the machine misread as alcohol? (the Intoxilyzer does not measure the ethyl alcohol but molecules in the methyl group)

Was my body temperature elevated? (a 1% elevation could cause a 8% increase in the breath result).

The following video clip is interesting.  Defense attorneys have known of this defect in the Intoxilyzer machine for years (positive alcohol reading after eating bread), and manufacturers of the device certainly have a scientific reply for why this result doesn't prove that the machine is inaccurate.  However, the fact that bread is causing the instrument to show an alcohol reading makes you wonder how accurately the software inside this machine is reading alcohol results that lead to convictions.

Did you know you can get DUI when driving a golf cart, riding lawnmower, go cart, bicycle, or scooter?

Check our this video my father sent to me- I think it may be staged but I can assure you, I've seen the State Attorney in various counties prosecute DUI's on things like this.

Lawnmower_DUI_Taser_Arrest.wmv