Court puts cap on DUI defense

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court Wednesday shut down a maneuver by at least one Las Vegas attorney that allowed his clients who were charged with drunken driving and other misdemeanor offenses to plead to lesser charges and escape with lighter punishments.

The court reinstated the drunken driving charges against five men in Clark County, clearing the way for their trials.

Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson, who argued the case, said the high court reached the "only sensible ruling." He said a motorist who drives recklessly, speeds and is drunk can be charged with three crimes and receive three punishments.

Nelson said a handful of drunken driving cases in Clark County have been placed on hold until the court ruled.

"There was never a loophole in the law," Nelson said. He said the court merely cleared up the law and only one lawyer, John G. Watkins, was using the tactic.

But Watkins said, "This is another case of the Nevada Supreme Court ignoring and violating a person's constitutional rights." He said he will ask the court to rehear the case and if that fails he said he will file a federal lawsuit.

"I'm not finished yet," Watkins vowed.

Clients of Watkins would be charged with DUI and other offenses, such as speeding, making an improper turn or an illegal change of lanes. They would come into court, plead to the lesser offenses and the judge would dismiss the DUI. The district attorney's office had objected to this procedure.

The judges had ruled the offenses arose out of the same incident and that the charges were redundant. Watkins argued that prosecutors pile on unnecessary charges and his strategy permitted the clients to plead guilty to the lesser counts. And he said Wednesday he had no doubt the district attorneys could continue to file extra charges.

The Supreme Court decision said the crux of a DUI charge is the motorist was driving or in control of a vehicle while he or she was intoxicated, and that other charges are separate and apart from the DUI charge.

The court said it usually does not consider appeals from Justice Court convictions. But it took these cases because there were different rulings from different Justice Courts and District Courts in Clark County.