Writer for Monterey County Coast Now Weekly David Schmalz, following in the footsteps of Eric Cushman. Fine journalism there David. But very poor judgment.
The state’s award:
The Weakly Is Celebrating State Recognition – David Schmalz Popped For DUI
Tag Archives: DUI
Erik Cushman’s Predisposition For Strong Whiskey And Multiple DUI Arrests
Things even the Squid would not write about.
What a doofus for trying to drive when intoxicated – while serving five years’ probation from the last DUI conviction.
Pacific Grove police arrested Monterey County Weekly publisher Erik Cushman July 28 for drunken driving and violating his probation from an earlier DUI conviction, which includes a requirement that he not drive if he has any alcohol in his blood.
The arrest happened as Cushman, 46, was on his way home from a Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce dinner where he accepted a Business Excellence Award for his newspaper in the Media and Marketing categoryCushman, who in a recent interview for the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s newsletter said his qualifications to be a newspaper publisher included his “predisposition for foul language and strong whiskey,” was arrested for his first DUI on May 30, 2009,
Erik Cushman’s Predisposition For Strong Whiskey And Multiple DUI Arrests
Rude Racist Of Questionable Competency
John Charles Ensor, 48, was arrested at gunpoint by Pacific Grove Police officers on Aug. 12, 2020 after they say he made threats, yelled racial slurs and threw an aluminum baseball bat at a vehicle and a beer can at another. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office charged Ensor with a litany of crimes, including a hate crime, assault by means to produce great bodily injury, criminal threats and exhibiting a deadly weapon.
A mental health evaluation was filed, but Butler has not yet ruled on whether or not he is competent to stand trial. Ensor tried to get Jefferson, his taxpayer-funded attorney, fired from his case at the Dec. 4 hearing.
Pacific Grove High Teacher Arrested For DUI
P.G. Man Guilty In Highway Crash That Killed Other Driver
Just 7 years in prison for that. Shame.
On the day of the crash, Stewart Napier was driving near the Eighth Street overpass in Marina when he “looked down for a lighter, and when he looked back up, he saw the victim’s brake lights and collided with him, causing the victim’s car to swerve off the road and burst into flames,”
“It was a heroin-methamphetamine case at rush hour on a road you and I travel all the time,” she said. “This is an example of the dangerousness of controlled substances vs alcohol and how they all intertwine. He’s a young man from P.G. driving on Highway 1 impaired, and he rear ends Mr. Acona, who dies. It’s tragic.”
Napier also pleaded guilty May 28 to assault likely to cause great bodily harm for a March 4 fight with another inmate at the Monterey County Jail, where he has been lodged since his arrest last December.
That On Star Will Hang You
Stuart Elder’s Cadillac provided data that we was flying.
The victims, Linda LaRone, 65, and Sharon Daly, 72, were former owners of a popular Pacific Grove pet shop that Elder remembered visiting as a child, he said prior to sentencing.
His blood-alcohol level was .17 — more than twice the legal limit — and he had been driving three times the 25-mph speed limit along Sloat Road in the Del Monte Forest when the crash occurred. Investigators were aided in reconstructing the crash with electronic data from Elder’s Cadillac Escalade.
Stuart Elder Changes His Story
Grasping to shift the blame, he adds Bambi to the story and says he was at half the speed originally stated.
Stuart Elder, the man convicted in the drunken-driving deaths, took the stand Thursday to testify he was driving on Sloat Road in Pebble Beach at about 30 mph, when he saw a deer on the road, prosecutor Meredith Sillman said Monday. Elder then testified he sped onto the opposite side of the road to avoid crashing into the animal, saw the victims and crashed head-on, Sillman said.
“He changed his story at the last minute to fit the evidence that we had brought in,” Sillman said.
Elder’s original story stated Sharon Daly, 72, who was driving the Ford Freestyle with Linda LaRone, 65, as her passenger, cut him off, which led to the crash. Elder was the only person the defense called to testify, Sillman said.
Stuart Elder Changes His Story
Stuart Elder Found Guilty
Fifteen years? Only fifteen years.
Stuart Elder, a 31-year-old builder, faces up to 15 years in prison for the manslaughter deaths of Linda LaRone, 65, and Sharon Daly, 72. The women were the former owners of a popular Pacific Grove pet shop.
Still the blame shifting continues…:
At trial, Elder’s lawyer Michael Lukehart had argued Daly, who was driving, had also been drinking that night.
Sillman said the responsibility of the two deaths, and injuries to his passenger, were solely Elder’s fault.
The Perception Is What Matters In Stuart Elder Trial
Nevermind the facts like he was intoxicated and speeding when he crashed, killing two women.
Sillman said Elder’s blood alcohol level was of .17 — more than twice the legal limit. Lukehart did not say whether Daly’s blood alcohol level was ever determined.
Data pulled from Elder’s Cadillac SUV showed that 1.5 seconds before the vehicles crashed head-on, Elder was driving three times the 25 mph speed limit. It wasn’t until a half-second before the wreck that Elder hit the breaks, slowing from 77 mph to 71 mph, Sillman said.
“We will not be contesting the physical facts of the case. What we are contesting is the perception,” he
Stuart Elder DUI-Manslaughter Trial Defenses
Denial is more than a long river in Africa.
Elder faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Because investigators did not find previous driving under the influence convictions, he is not facing a life sentence. Elder has a checkered driving history, with more than a dozen traffic citations between 2003 and 2012.
He says we was cut off:
“He said he was cut off by a vehicle and was unable to avoid it, then they collided,” Avila said. “He seemed to be upset, irrational, excited and talkative.”
Then his DUI blood test was unconstitutional:
Prosecutor Meredith Sillman argued that Elder signed a release allowing medics to withdraw blood from his body prior to being jailed, and that the officer acted in conformity with the law. The court agreed with Sillman and admitted the tests as evidence during trial.
Then it was due to the way the road is laid out:
“What if it was a traffic engineering issue? What if others reacted the same way in that area? Since it’s a homicide, perception here is crucial,” he said.
Sillman said “it is just too much” data for her to collect and find exactly what the defense is looking for. The court denied the defense’s motion.