NORTH BAY PROSECUTORS LAUD GRANT TO UP DUI CONVICTION RATE
12/13/06 4:00 PST
SANTA ROSA (BCN)

The district attorneys of Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties announced a statewide effort Tueday morning to increase the conviction rate for driving under the influence and to reduce the number of traffic fatalities.

Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua, Napa County District Attorney Gary Lieberstein and Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian joined district attorneys across the state this morning to announce a $3.4 million grant from the National Highway Safety Administration to the California District Attorneys Association.

The association will use the grant to finance six regional "resource centers'' and six specialized prosecutors in the state, including Northern California, and a DUI prosecutor mentoring program.

The goal is to improve the statewide DUI conviction rate of 77 percent, the district attorneys said. Some areas of the state have a DUI conviction as low as 70 percent, Berberian said.

The DUI conviction rate in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties is closer to 90 percent, Lieberstein, Passalacqua and Berberian said. The grant will augment law enforcement agencies' "Avoid campaigns'' to reduce alcohol related traffic fatalities in the state, the prosecutors said.

In 2005, there were 1,719 alcohol-related fatalities in California, the prosecutors said. The current theme of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is "Drunk Driving: Over the Limit, Under Arrest.''

The California District Attorneys Association has adopted "Make it Home for the Holidays'' as its slogan.

"When nearly 43 percent of all DUI arrests involving a traffic collision results in an injury or fatality, we need to make a concerted effort to reduce the number of casualties and protect our citizens on the roadway,'' Passalacqua said.

Passalacqua said filing a murder charge in a DUI incident that caused death is a tool prosecutors have to reduce traffic fatalities.

Berberian said 1,492 DUI cases were referred to his office last year and charges were filed in 1,336 cases. In Marin, 35 percent of young people attending parties where alcohol is available wind up driving home, Berberian said.

Three people were sentenced in Marin County Superior Court Monday to county jail time for conspiring to provide alcohol to minors at a Novato birthday party last year. Two men who attended the party died later in a vehicle accident, Berberian noted.

"A lot of parents are in denial,'' Lieberstein said. A generation accustomed to text messaging can organize a party attended by up to 100 people without their parents' consent or knowledge within an hour,'' Lieberstein said.

"The kids are left to police themselves,'' Lieberstein said.