The VLW Blog

Certain unnamed Virginia Beach circuit judges are so lenient on drunken driving defendants, lawyers will jockey their cases to try to get those judges, according to an article by WAVY-TV. Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant tells the station certain judges hand out little or no jail time for drunken or drugged drivers. A member of Mothers [...]

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Both the judge and the prosecutor had conflicts of interest in their handling of the case of a Williamsburg lawyer charged with a DUI, according to a substitute prosecutor involved in the case. Charles City County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tyler cried foul about a June hearing in which Circuit Judge Samuel Powell effectively dismissed one [...]

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A drunken driver who killed a nun in a 2010 car crash was found guilty of felony murder yesterday by a Prince William County circuit judge. The case may be the first reported instance in which a traffic fatality prompted a murder conviction, reports the Associated Press. Carlos A. Martinelly-Montano pleaded guilty to a number [...]

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Want to know where the cops are checking for drunken drivers? There’s an app for that. Or at least, there was. Apple has put the kibosh on mobile applications that identify DUI checkpoints unless the checkpoints have been publicly announced. The existence of such apps led a gaggle of U.S. Senators to send letters to [...]

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An Essex County supervisor’s explanation about drinking chocolate eggnog after a single car accident was enough to get a drunken driving charge dismissed, but not without some skepticism from the judge. Jack Stevens was on his way home from church (!) on Hustle Road (!!) Jan. 2 when he slammed his car into a tree, [...]

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Del. G. Manoli Loupassi wants Virginia drivers to know they will go to jail on a first offense DUI if their blood alcohol level is high enough. To spread the word, Loupassi proposes a $25 special fee for those convicted of DUI to fund an education campaign. Loupassi says a lot of defendants are surprised [...]

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Virginia Beach lawyer Claude M. Scialdone pleaded guilty yesterday to possession of cocaine. Scialdone, 65, had disposition of the charge deferred for a year under the Virginia law that applies to first-time drug offenders. The charge will be dismissed if he gets in no further trouble while undergoing probation and performing 100 hours of community service. [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia issued two unpublished orders today, one reaffirming the rule that you can’t get more than you sue for and the second holding that the fourth-offense drunken driving statute permits both a prison term and a fine. In the ad damnum case, the plaintiff sought “approximately” $50,000 in damages, and the [...]

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Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wanted to use a case from Virginia to decide whether an anonymous tip is enough to stop a car on suspicion of drunken driving. But the only colleague who agreed with him that the U.S. Supreme Court should take on the issue was Justice Antonin Scalia. Under the Supreme [...]

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A Norfolk Circuit Court has denied a prosecutor’s request for a DUI defendant’s hospital records from the night he was arrested at the hospital where he was taken after a traffic accident. In a case of apparent first impression, Norfolk Circuit Judge Mary Jane Hall in Commonwealth v. Parks quashed the commonwealth’s subpoena duces tecum [...]

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