Sobriety Tests

Electronics retailer Sharper Image Corp. agreed Friday to stop selling personal breathalyzers and pay $1.2 million in restitution as part of a settlement regarding the devices. The company incorrectly claimed the digital breath alcohol testers were accurate to 0.001 of a percentage point of blood-alcohol content, according to tests by San Diego's Consumer Protection Unit. Sharper Image also agreed to pay $100,000 in penalties for inaccurately advertising the effectiveness of the testers.

WASHINGTON - Police officers usually must have a search warrant before requiring a suspected drunk driver to have his blood drawn, the Supreme Court said Wednesday. In an 8-1 decision, the justices rejected Missouri prosecutors' contention that police should have the freedom to act quickly and dispense with a warrant because alcohol dissipates in the blood. Instead, the court said it would hold fast to its view that the 4th Amendment's ban on "unreasonable searches" means the police usually need a warrant from a magistrate before invading a person's privacy.

Now the iPod can answer the question: Am iDrunk? A new product called the iBreath turns Apple Inc.'s iPod into an alcohol breathalyzer. The $79 accessory plugs into the base of the iPod and functions like a field sobriety test. The person using the iBreath exhales into a retractable "blow wand" and the internal sensor measures the blood-alcohol content. Within two seconds, it displays the results on an LED screen. A reading of 0.

Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer has accused local employee associations of being behind a 911 call that led to an officer giving him a field sobriety test outside his home. "This has gone way over the line," Righeimer said at a news conference Friday outside City Hall. "I understand that pensions are a tense issue, that pay is a tense issue. I understand that some people may disagree, but when what looks like someone is paid to follow me around town and set me up for a DUI in front of my kids and my house, it's crossing the line.

Signs announcing a sobriety checkpoint ahead on Pacific Coast Highway didn't deter 12 people from driving through and being arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. The California Highway Patrol set up the checkpoint at 9 p.m. Friday along northbound lanes at Broadway because of the beginning of spring break for many schools. A spokesman said that by the time the checkpoint shut down at 2:15 a.m. Saturday, 1,350 motorists had been checked. None of those arrested were teen-agers.

The blood alcohol test results of three off-duty police officers involved in a street fight outside a bar last November can be released publicly, a judge ruled Monday. Officer Alex Fagan Jr., the son of department Acting Chief Alex Fagan Sr., is one of the officers facing a felony trial this spring. Officers Matt Tonsing and David Lee also are charged. The tests were conducted by the department's internal affairs division several hours after the 2:30 a.m. altercation on Union Street.

Halloween revelers who drive along Harbor Boulevard on Saturday night may be stopped by police and asked to take a sobriety test. The Police Department will begin the first in a series of 12 sobriety checkpoints during the next year. "The program is intended to educate drivers that if they drive drunk, they are likely to be stopped and arrested," said Sgt. Larry Griswold. Griswold said the checkpoint will be on Harbor Boulevard at the north end of the city between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.

While many people think a driver has to be falling-down drunk to be dangerous, police apply a more subtle standard. If you can't smoothly perform the following tasks, which are commonly required of drivers suspected of being under the influence, you stand a good chance of being arrested and hauled off to jail: WALK AND TURN--Take nine steps heel-to-toe along a straight line with hands at your sides, then turn and take nine steps back.

An attorney for Rodney G. King on Monday denounced his client's recent drunk driving arrest as harassment and said he has strong evidence contradicting police assertions that King was driving erratically and failed his sobriety tests. Lawyer Steven A. Lerman said comments from at least a dozen witnesses indicate that King was not driving recklessly and had actually passed the sobriety tests during his arrest by the California Highway Patrol outside a Denny's restaurant in Orange last Thursday.

Eighteen people were arrested at a sobriety checkpoint by Costa Mesa police Friday night and early Saturday morning. The checkpoint, at 19th Street and Newport Boulevard, was in operation from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Police and California Highway Patrol officers screened about 880 of the 3,430 vehicles that passed through the checkpoint. The arrests resulted from 28 field sobriety tests by officers.

Until last month, the strongest evidence in drug and drunk driving cases in courtrooms across the nation often was a piece of paper. A crime lab or Breathalyzer report would confirm that the defendant indeed had illegal drugs or a high level of alcohol in his or her system. But a Supreme Court decision has sent a jolt through that procedure. Now the prosecution must make a lab technician available to testify in person if the defendant demands it.

Accused drunk drivers now have more ammunition for challenging Breathalyzer findings as a result of a unanimous ruling Thursday by the California Supreme Court. The ruling is expected to make drunk-driving cases more complicated and possibly more difficult to prosecute, lawyers said. Courts in two other states, Arizona and Vermont, have reached similar conclusions.

San Diego Chargers wide receiver Vincent Jackson was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of drunk driving. Jackson failed sobriety tests shortly after 2 a.m. on State Route 52 in San Diego, a California Highway Patrol officer said. Jackson, whose blood-alcohol level was unknown, was on probation for a previous DUI arrest. The player was taken to the San Diego County Jail and released. Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith said he was aware of Jackson's "off-the-field issue."

Now the iPod can answer the question: Am iDrunk? A new product called the iBreath turns Apple Inc.'s iPod into an alcohol breathalyzer. The $79 accessory plugs into the base of the iPod and functions like a field sobriety test. The person using the iBreath exhales into a retractable "blow wand" and the internal sensor measures the blood-alcohol content. Within two seconds, it displays the results on an LED screen. A reading of 0.

Paris Hilton's arrest early Thursday for allegedly driving drunk on the streets of Hollywood in her rare Mercedes was less "Dragnet" and more reality TV. The entire episode was recorded exhaustively by paparazzi. It included a guest appearance by a star of the HBO television show "Entourage" and culminated with Hilton cheerfully describing the incident on Ryan Seacrest's radio show. There was none of the secrecy that surrounded actor-director Mel Gibson's DUI arrest last month.

Electronics retailer Sharper Image Corp. agreed Friday to stop selling personal breathalyzers and pay $1.2 million in restitution as part of a settlement regarding the devices. The company incorrectly claimed the digital breath alcohol testers were accurate to 0.001 of a percentage point of blood-alcohol content, according to tests by San Diego's Consumer Protection Unit. Sharper Image also agreed to pay $100,000 in penalties for inaccurately advertising the effectiveness of the testers.

Eight people were arrested on drunk-driving charges Friday night at a DUI checkpoint in Costa Mesa. City police set up the checkpoint between 9:15 p.m. Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday on eastbound 17th Street at Westminster Avenue. Officers screened 769 drivers from the more than 1,300 cars that passed through the checkpoint, said Sgt. Larry Hicks, and performed field sobriety tests on 60 of them. Eight were charged with driving under the influence.

The blood alcohol test results of three off-duty police officers involved in a street fight outside a bar last November can be released publicly, a judge ruled Monday. Officer Alex Fagan Jr., the son of department Acting Chief Alex Fagan Sr., is one of the officers facing a felony trial this spring. Officers Matt Tonsing and David Lee also are charged. The tests were conducted by the department's internal affairs division several hours after the 2:30 a.m. altercation on Union Street.

Breath-alcohol detectors installed in the cars of convicted drunk drivers prevented them from driving under the influence more than 10,000 times in the first year of Pennsylvania's Ignition Interlock Law, according to a study by the Pennsylvania DUI Assn. Drivers whose licenses have been suspended for two years may get them back after one if they agree to have the device installed. They must pass a breath test before the system will allow them to start their vehicles.