From the home state of Hollywood comes a case worthy of the silver screen; car chases, family conflict, and teenage heartbreak all played a role in the case of People v. Powell, C057847 (Cal.App. 2010), which recently upheld the conviction of Jeffery Douglas Powell for half a dozen felonies and misdemeanors arising out of an incident on July 30, 2006 in which he drove drunk, led the police on a car chase, followed by one on foot, and recruited his mother to file a fake police report to help him escape. Part one of this two-part article will detail the facts of this incident while part two will focus on Mr. Powell's legal arguments and the final resolution of his case.
At about 2:30 A.M. on July 30th, a California police officer noticed 6 cars traveling in a close formation along Cirby Way, each filled with several teenagers. The driver of the lead car was swerving recklessly and leaning out the window to wave to the other cars. The officer switched on his emergency lights and ordered the driver to stop, which he did after traveling several hundred yards. The officer approached the stopped car on foot, but just as he reached the back of the car, the driver fled the scene as fast as the car could go. When the officer had finally caught up with the speeding car, it was going nearly 70 m.p.h. before making a sudden turn down a side street and stopping abruptly. Two men jumped out of the front of the car and ran in opposite directions, with the police officer following the driver in his police cruiser. As the officer's car was passing the abandoned car, though, another passenger ran out of the back seat in front of the oncoming police car. The officer tried to swerve to miss the passenger (later identified as Kristina Giachino) but struck both her and the abandoned car, sending the police car ricocheting into a tree. The officer blacked out from the crash.
When he awoke, the officer saw Ms. Giachino climbing a nearby fence and he ordered her to stop. She did, but the officer heard voices from behind the fence as he approached it. When he looked, he saw the two men who had fled the car climbing another fence into an apartment complex. The men escaped the officer's pursuit and he called for backup to search for them. Another officer soon spotted the defendant, Mr. Powell, in the same apartment complex. Mr. Powell gestured obscenely to this officer when he shined a spotlight onto him. Mr. Powell ran but was quickly caught. He denied both that he had been drinking and that he had driven that night, despite the fact that a chemical alcohol test of his blood determined that he had a BAC of at least 0.16 at the time he was caught.
Meanwhile, a search of the abandoned car had turned up Mr. Powell's checkbook and a receipt from a liquor store. Also during the search, Mr. Powell's mother had called 911 to report that her car (the abandoned vehicle) had been stolen. At her son's trial, Mrs. Powell testified (after being granted immunity for calling in a false report) that the 911 call had been her son's idea. According to her, Mr. Powell called her in a panic and asked her to report the car stolen in hopes of getting the police off his trail. Mr. Powell was charged with, among other things, driving under the influence, DUI per se, reckless driving while fleeing a lawful arrest, resisting arrest, conspiracy to file a false police report, driving with a suspended license, and reckless driving.
In the next article, Dramatic California DUI Case - Part 2, the twisted legal saga works its way through the court process.
