Courts Raise Bail for Suspected Drunk Drivers

SANTA ANA — Drunk driving and spousal abuse suspects will be forced to pay a significantly higher price if they want to be released on bail, court officials announced Thursday.

“The intent of the increased bail is to highlight the seriousness of the offense,” said Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, chairman of the Orange County Bail Committee. He added that there could be further increases “if deemed necessary to protect the public.”

While prosecutors and the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving praised the change, some defense attorneys complained that the higher bail is unnecessary and unfair.

“It’s another attack on our presumption of innocence,” said Myles Berman, who represents defendants in drunk driving cases in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Costa Mesa-based defense attorney Marshall Schulman agreed. “I think the motives of the judges are probably in the right place,” he said. “But they just don’t realize that what they are doing is extending another punishment over and above the severe punishment that the offenders are receiving today. You’re not going to wipe out DUIs by increasing bails. All it’s going to do is make the bail bondsman very happy.”

For those suspected of misdemeanor driving under the influence, the minimum bail was raised from $1,400 to $2,500 for a first-time offender. For a second offense, bail will leap from $2,500 to $10,000. Bail for a third offense will be $15,000 instead of $10,000. The second and third offenses must have taken place within seven years of each other.

A fourth drunk driving offense within seven years is a felony, and bail has been raised from $10,000 to $25,000.

“One of the things that raising bails does is that it further recognizes the seriousness of the crime of driving under the influence, and it also adds more punitive measures financially for those with priors, as well it should,” said Reidel Post, executive director of the Orange County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“It’s a positive step in terms of having more of a hold on those that are likely to not show up in court and possibly flee the jurisdiction,” Post added.

But Schulman said 80% of first offenders never go through the system again and are mainly “non-criminal types.”

The bail for suspected drunk drivers is dramatically higher in Orange County than in Los Angeles County, where bail for first-time offenders is $500, $1,000 for second-time offenders and $2,500 for third-timers. The bail for fourth-time offenders varies, said Bert Potter of Potter Bail Bonds in Los Angeles.

Potter and others in the business said only about 15% of drunk driving defendants end up needing the services of a bail bondsman.

Bob Drake, a bail bondsman in Santa Ana, said Orange County’s increase could mean more business for him and his colleagues because more people will be unable to write checks for the bail.

For suspected spousal abusers, the minimum bail has been increased from $10,000 to $25,000. This is still dramatically less than the $50,000 minimum in Los Angeles County, according to Curt Hagman, president of Apex Bail Bonds, which serves both Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jane Shade, who prosecutes domestic violence cases, wholeheartedly supports the higher bail.

“I think it’s appropriate for the crime,” Shade said. “It is not unusual for someone to bail out and return to the scene and inflict further injury on the victim. You don’t want it impossibly high, but this seems like a fair medium point.”

But Schulman disagreed and said that in most cases, it is the wife who bails the husband out through a bondsperson, paying 10% of the bond, which would now be $2,500 instead of $1,000.

“I think the $10,000 bail was ridiculous and $25,000 is absurd,” he said.