Articles Posted in OUI Offenses

Drunk driving and other criminal charges have been filed against a 22-year-old Falmouth man who was allegedly operating under the influence of alcohol in last month’s fatal car accident on County Road, in Bourne, Massachusetts, according to police authorities. Jonathan Muir was charged in Barnstable District Court with motor vehicle homicide, motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of alcohol, two counts of causing serious bodily injury while operating under the influence of alcohol, operating negligently to endanger, operating under the influence of alcohol, speeding, and a marked lane violation, according to the Bourne Police Department.

Police allege that Muir was driving a 1984 Porsche when it veered off County Road in Bourne and slammed into a tree around 1:30 a.m. on June 29. The car crash killed passenger Cassandra Flynn-Rakos, a 21-year-old Bourne resident and nursing student at Fitchburg State College. Muir and two other passengers, Erica Pouler and Sonya Dangelo, both 21, of Bourne, were seriously injured in the car accident. Muir could face up to 15 years in prison and $5,000 in fines for the motor vehicle homicide charge while under the influence, according to Massachusetts General Laws, or up to 2 1/2 years for motor vehicle homicide. Muir, who moved to Falmouth from Meridian, Connecticut, allegedly has a history of driving infractions in both Massachusetts and in Connecticut, according to registry records from both states. Muir lost his license for almost a year for failing to complete a driver training course in Connecticut within the required time. He was ordered to take the course after being convicted of speeding and driving an unregistered vehicle in April 2007.

He ultimately finished the course, paid the fines and his license was reinstated in July 2008. Following this motor vehicle accident, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles immediately and indefinitely revoked Muir’s driver’s license.

Here’s an interesting decision handed down from the Massachusetts Appeals Court recently. Seems a Barnstable District Court judge overstepped his authority in 2007 when he unilaterally upgraded, or beefed up, the charges that the Commonwealth had tried a defendant on involving a 2006 motor vehicle fatality on Cape Cod. The Cape and Island District Attorney’s office had charged the defendant, Gerard Williams, of Cotuit, with vehicular homicide while operating under the influence of alcohol, and also charged him with a separate count of operating a motor vehicle to endanger. After a jury-waived bench trial before Barnstable District Court judge Don Carpenter, the judge found the defendant guilty on the charge of operating a motor vehicle to endanger in the death of William Armstrong, 43, of Hyannis.

Armstrong was killed when his motorcycle collided with Williams’ car on Route 28 in West Yarmouth. On the more serious charge of vehicular homicide while operating under the influence of alcohol, the judge found Williams not guilty. This was chiefly due to the fact that the defendant’s .079 blood alcohol level – a fraction below the .08 legal limit for driving, as well as his four failed field sobriety tests – were ruled not admissible as evidence.

Citing his opinion that the defendant drove negligently in causing the accident, the judge decided to add a new, separate offense of negligent motor vehicle homicide, to the underlying guilty finding of operating to endanger conviction, and sentenced the defendant based on that new charge and finding. One reason that’s so important? On the “operating to endanger conviction,” a drivers’ license is typically suspended 60 days. Upon a conviction of motor vehicle homicide, drivers’ licenses are suspended for 15 years.