No blood samples in St. Lucie's judge's DUI arrest thanks to court ruling
The Treasure Coast Palm by Elliott Jones - October 27, 2011
VERO BEACH, FL — St. Lucie County Judge Kathryn Nelson could have been forced to give blood for DUI testing if she had been arrested here in late 2009. At the time Vero Beach Police was one of the law enforcement agencies in Florida using court-approved search warrants to take blood samples in cases in which defendants refused to undergo alcohol testing. On Tuesday evening Nelson, 52, was charged with DUI while driving on State Road 60 at the Merrill P. Barber Bridge. According to a police report, her eyes appeared glassy and bloodshot. Her breath smelled of alcohol. On her skirt was a material that looked like vomit, according to reports. Nelson refused to get out of her vehicle. One police officer pulled her fingers off the steering wheel and two others removed her from the car, police said. She declined both field sobriety tests and a blood-alcohol test, said Police Chief Donald Dappen. But police no longer use warrants to take blood samples, Dappen said, because Florida's 5th District Court of Appeal, in Daytona Beach, in May ruled that blood can't be seized as evidence of committing a crime, court records show. The ruling is on appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. And until the Supreme Court rules, Dappen said his agency will not get search warrants to locally combat the problem of people refusing a breath test when stopped on suspicion of driving drunk. The police's use of search warrants was backed by the State Attorney's Office. And, "We will support them again if they become legal (through a Supreme Court ruling)," said Assistant State Attorney Chris Taylor. Taylor declined to comment on particular DUI cases, including Nelson. State Attorney Bruce Colton is asking Gov. Rick Scott's office to assign her case to another judicial circuit. Before being appointed a judge in 2005, Nelson spent 15 years as an assistant state attorney with Colton's office.
Why do some judges think they are above the law? They are not very good examples to our youth.
ReplyDeleteis not only about injustice towards the Mothers, Judge John L Phillips does not believe that the coin has two sides and that he should be equally fair to both parents. My self as a professional well educated father was unfairly judged by the court in Palm Beach and not even my evidence was accounted for.
ReplyDeleteJudge John L. Phillips should be removed from that chair. Too many injustices towards both parents. He NEEDS TO LEARN TO BE FAIR AND 50/50 towards both parents and not let his anger and prejudice determine the future of a family!
Judge Phillips took my children from me. I was dressed down in front of his court the one time that I appeared Pro Se, when he let me know that he thinks little of Pro Se litigants in no uncertain terms. When, subsequently, my lawyer appeared at the trial that we had tried to get rescheduled to accommodate my kindergarten aged son's chemotherapy schedule, my lawyer was screamed at to shut up, and threatened with jail, and "shackles". She was denied to leave the courtroom to use her insulin. None of this was recorded - Phillips does not use court recorders, and provides no transcripts.
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