The Geriatric Bandits: Not Your Usual Suspects
Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 September 2009 12:17 Written by admin Tuesday, 15 September 2009 12:05
By R. STICKNEY
Updated 8:30 AM PDT, Tue, Sep 15, 2009
Meet the Geriatric Bandits: One has a cane, the other needs an oxygen mask. They’re old enough to be your grandfather. This past week, they’ve both robbed banks. And one is still at large.
On Saturday, a man carrying an inhaler or an oxygen tank robbed the San Diego National Bank in La Jolla. The man, wearing a white beret, argyle sweater and sports coat, walked into the bank on Ivanhoe Avenue with a demand note. In the picture caught by surveillance cameras, he looks to be in his 70s. An oxygen tube appears to hang from his face.
Investigators don’t know if he was armed, but they do know that he got away with some cash. Just look at him – would you stop him?
Then, two days later, another bank robbery. This time, the target was the Bank of America on El Cajon Blvd in City Heights. A 70-year old man — with cane, mind you — walked into the bank with a note and demanded a large amount of cash.
The bank manager attempted to evacuate the bank and lock the suspect inside, but Geriatric Bandit No. 2 was too crafty. Despite dozens of police cars surrounding the bank, he hobbled out of the bank using a side door and tried to hide on the porch of a home a few blocks away.
Police found him lying on the porch and arrested him — maybe his bright red hawaiian shirt gave him away.
First Published: Sep 15, 2009 7:47 AM PDT
Man jumps out of private ambulance onto Hollywood Freeway and is killed by another car – LA Daily News
Last Updated on Thursday, 10 September 2009 02:52 Written by admin Thursday, 10 September 2009 02:52
Two or three areas of law all wrapped into one. This is very sad and I am sure this man’s family will mourn his loss, mental instability notwithstanding.
LOS ANGELES DUI ATTORNEY POINTS TO STUDIES
Last Updated on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 09:39 Written by admin Wednesday, 9 September 2009 09:39
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Roadside "field sobriety tests" are
commonly used by police officers in DUI investigations to determine whether a
driver is under the influence of alcohol. Typically, they consist of a battery
of 3-4 tasks, such as walk-and-turn, one-leg-stand, finger-to-nose, or
nystagmus ("follow the pencil with your eyes").
Los Angeles DUI lawyer Lawrence Taylor, author of the best-selling legal
treatise Drunk Driving Defense, argues that although these DUI tests have an
aura of scientific credibility to a jury, they have no real basis in science
and are almost useless in determining intoxication.
First, Taylor says, any honest officer will admit that the decision to arrest
for DUI is usually made at the driver's window. Since the officer has already
made up his mind, his subjective decision as to whether a person passed or
failed the tests is suspect: as with any human, he will "see" what he expects
to see.
Second, the conditions under which field sobriety tests are taken almost
guarantee failure: usually late at night, possibly cold, along a graveled or
sloped roadside, cars passing a few feet away with bright headlights and
buffeting the suspect with wind waves, the officer's moving flashlight and his
patrol car's blinding headlights providing the lighting. Add the fact that
the DUI suspect is nervous, possibly frightened and completely unfamiliar with
the tests.
Taylor, known nationally as the "Dean of DUI Attorneys", points to a
scientific study to argue that even under ideal conditions the tests are
"designed for failure".
Dr. Spurgeon Cole of Clemson University conducted a study on the accuracy of
roadside field sobriety tests. His staff videotaped individuals performing six
common field sobriety tests, then showed the tapes to 14 experienced police
officers and asked them to decide whether the suspects had "had too much to
drink and drive".
Unknown to the officers, the blood-alcohol concentration of each of the 21 DUI
subjects was .00% -- stone sober.
The results: the officers gave their opinions that 46% of these innocent
people were "too drunk to drive" (Cole and Nowaczyk, "Field Sobriety Tests:
Are they Designed for Failure?", 79 Perceptual and Motor Skills Journal 99).
In other words, the Los Angeles DUI attorney says, the field sobriety tests
were hardly more accurate at detecting intoxication than flipping a coin.
