The VLW Blog

Law enforcement officers might dream of headlines about catching public enemies and saving citizens from harm. Unfortunately, those are not the headlines coming out out about Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Deputy Ronald Anderson. His latest appearance in the news columns concerns his recent arrest in North Carolina for driving while impaired. It was only two months ago that Anderson received attention for shooting himself in the hand and leg during a training exercise.

Wythe County Juvenile & Domestic Relations Judge Michael K. Blankenship was charged with drunken driving on Saturday, reports the Roanoke Times.

Blankenship was stopped in Smyth County after police were told to be on the lookout for a Subaru driving erratically on Interstate 81.

A new specialized license plate could be coming soon to Virginia.

Its focus group? Drunken drivers.

A newly proposed law would order Virginia drivers with three or more DUI convictions to sport bright yellow license plates with red characters – a “Scarlet Letter” of sorts for repeat offenders.

The bill, sponsored by Del. Lionel Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, would require offenders to purchase the plate for $500 and keep it on their vehicles for five years after retaining their driver’s licenses. According to the DMV, three drunken driving convictions in 10 years results in indefinite license revocation. Third-time offenders also face over $1000 in fines and mandatory jail time.

In an article from The Virginian-Pilot, opponents of the bill call the proposed law a violation of civil liberties, and claim that similar laws passed in other states failed to curb instances of drunken driving.

Others argue that the proposed law is too lenient, preferring harsher punishments such as specialized plates after a first DUI offense and vehicle repossession for second and third convictions.

Spruill stands by the measure, likening it to the public database that identifies repeat child molesters. He says the plates would warn other drivers of a potential danger on the road.

But critics – and drunks – should probably rest easy. A similar bill, proposed by Spruill last year, never made it past committee.

Former University of Mary Washington President William J. Frawley was in court yesterday on the first of two drunken-driving hearings he will have this week.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that in Fredericksburg general district court, he entered an Alford plea, in which he did not admit guilt but acknowledged the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him. Frawley is scheduled to appear in Fairfax on Friday.

As we noted on this blog in a post last month, the 2007 General Assembly set up a system to whack bad drivers with new hefty fines in the transportation bill.

Most of the new-statute stories in the general press before the July 1 effective date have focused on the new fees. See, for example, pieces in The Washington Post and Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The Supreme Court of Virginia must have been getting a lot of traffic at its Web site. The new civil remedial fee system has been declared a hot topic over there. The court provides a link to its useful primer on the new scheme, which we again recommend.

In an ongoing, never-ending effort to figure out how to generate money for transportation, the 2007 General Assembly came up with at least a partial source for funds: bad drivers.

In House Bill 3202, the transportation funding bill, the Assembly established a new system of “civil remedial fees,” the purpose of which is “to generate revenue from drivers whose proven dangerous driving behavior places significant financial burdens upon the Commonwealth.”

The laws establishing these fees will take effect July 1.

The Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court has put together a very nice explanatory guide for the public. It should be a good starting point for a lawyer having to explain to a client charged with DUI why said client will be paying a total of $2,250 to the Department of Motor Vehicles should he be convicted.