Court awash in DUI cases
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Apr. 15–It’s 8:45 on a rainy weekday morning, and dozens of damp, unhappy-looking people are sitting in the fluorescent glare of a Sacramento courtroom. Men and women, young and old, they are among the thousands each year arrested on misdemeanor DUI charges in Sacramento County. “Line up,” says Commissioner Craig B. Regan, “and I’ll see if you qualify for a public defender.” In the past three weeks, Sacramento has experienced six high-profile deaths allegedly caused by drunken drivers. Three women and a baby were killed on South Land Park Drive. A pregnant wife and mother was struck down on the lawn of an Arden Arcade home. A young woman died when her boyfriend’s car slammed into a tree in Del Paso Heights. Yet those shocking fatalities are just the most visible signs of a much larger problem — one that plays out every day in Sacramento Superior Court and has no end in sight, say those who handle DUI cases in the justice system. “It’s an epidemic, and I don’t know how to stop it,” said Deputy District Attorney Kelly Clark, a senior… |