Typically a first time DUI in Los Angeles is booked as a misdemeanor criminal charge.  However, in distinct situations where the DUI is in some way “aggravated,” under the law, the prosector has the ability to increase the charge to a felony.  Aggravating circumstances include excessive speeding, accident, damage to property or persons, injury to anyone, and possession of illegal narcotics or a firearm.

As you read the article below, see if you can pick out the aggravating factors.  There’s plenty.

Suspected DUI and gang member leads LAPD on chase

From wire service reports

Posted:   03/14/2012 06:27:24 AM PDT

Updated:   03/14/2012 06:28:14 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES – A suspected drunken driver police believe is a known gang member led officers on a freeway chase that ended with the use of a PIT maneuver and a spike strip, police said today.

When the chase ended in Bell, officers removed a baby in a car carrier from the vehicle and questioned a woman passenger.

The chase began at 10:12 p.m. Tuesday when a unit from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Station tried to pull the driver over near Ditman Avenue and Sixth Street in East Los Angeles, said Officer Karen Rayner.

The driver, whose name was not immediately released, was speeding and driving erratically, said LAPD Lt. Richard Thomas of the Hollenbeck Station.

The suspect then got onto the eastbound Pomona (60) Freeway, the southbound San Gabriel River (605) Freeway, the westbound Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway, the northbound Harbor (110) Freeway and the eastbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway before getting on the southbound Long Beach (710) Freeway.

The CHP took over the chase at 10:27 p.m., Rayner said.

The suspect was taken into custody by California Highway Patrol officers at 10:58 p.m. after he exited the southbound Long Beach (710) Freeway at Florence Avenue, Thomas said.

“He was known to the officers; they believed he was a known gang member and was possibly on parole,” Thomas said.

The post DUI aggravating factors appeared first on Law Offices of Taylor and Taylor - DUI Central.