Mandatory blood-draws for suspected DWIs? Hidalgo County is the place to be

Gonna drive drunk?

Note to serial drunk drivers: If you’re going to drive drunk, stay at home. Not home, home. Booooooring. No, I’m talking about our home county -- Hidalgo County.

For drunk drivers, Hidalgo County is indeed the place to slug down the alcohol. Hidalgo County doesn’t have a no-refusal policy. If you’re pulled over for suspected drunk driving, cops here can’t get a judge to sign a warrant mandating that your blood be drawn. First, you have to crash into something or someone. Go 90, drive across the median all you want while downing a 16-ouncer. As long as you don’t hit anything or anyone, simply refuse the breathalyzer test and field-sobriety test if indeed a cop stops you, and most likely, in the end, you won’t get convicted. Not in an Hidalgo County courtroom.

If you’re bombed out of your skull – blitzed on margaritas, tequila, beer, or all three --can’t tell the right lane from the left lane; much less, the right side of the road vs. the left; and your eyes are rolling around in their sockets, Hidalgo County is the place to be when you climb behind the wheel of your vehicle (where did I park the dang thing?) after six hours spent either at the bar downing shots, ogling the bar maid/stud, or at an allnight political rally/pachanga where the alcohol often flows free, AKA, booze for votes.

Need some coke? See the politiqueras out back.

Other less progressive counties – Cameron, Bexar, Harris – have a no-refusal deal 365 days of the year. Backward-thinking people who lead those cities, that’s what they are. Don’t they understand that drunk drivers have rights? The City of Brownsville, too, no-refusal yearround. The City of Austin as well. What’s a drunk driver to do? Stay home? Stay off the roads? Not with another bar to get to before closing time, or another political pachanga to visit. On the road again…

In those places I just mentioned, unlike Hidalgo County, you can’t just refuse a breathalyzer and/or a field sobriety test and go to jail for the night, awaiting bail the next day, after which you can get an occupational license and still drive 12 hours a day.

Sure, you’re out on bond and are told not to drink or do drugs, but if you fail bond conditions, which sometimes includes an order not to consume alcohol or drugs, seldom are you ever thrown into the can. Hidalgo County isn’t that backward. We protect criminal rights in this county. We don’t care about the victims’ rights.

No, in those other counties, including many others across Texas, if the cop tells a judge that there’s probable cause to suspect you’re driving drunk (let’s say, you just mowed down a road sign and sideswiped a car), then the cop can get a warrant signed by a judge (who also has to be a licensed attorney), after which the suspected drunk driver cannot refuse a blood-draw.

Where are the drunk-driver’s constitutional rights? In Texas, every drunk driver should have the right to drive drunk, refuse a breathalyzer, a field-sobriety test without this insane no-refusal law in place. Thankfully, Hidalgo County isn’t like that. In Hidalgo County, drunk drivers still have rights.

Labor Day No-Refusal

Over Labor Day weekend, Hidalgo County instituted its third annual no-refusal weekend, which began Thursday, Aug. 31, and stretched on through to Labor Day. The current district attorney, Ricardo Rodriguez, came up with the idea in 2015 because he said he was concerned with the high rate of DWI-related accidents in this county. Of all the holiday weekends, for some reason, Labor Day Weekend has produced the most arrests and/or fatalities over the decades. Bottoms up.

Rodriguez even held a press conference Aug. 29, which was attended by approximately 50 law enforcement officials, to hammer home the point: drunk driving in Hidalgo County is serious business.

“You don’t have the right to get behind the wheel intoxicated and kill someone,” said Rodriguez. “That’s where we come in.”

During that same press conference, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said he had hopes that with the help of the no-refusal weekend, the county could report zero DWI arrests after everything was said and done.

“That will be the mark of true success,” he said, “if we can declare this so loud (via the press conference and the publicity it would generate), that we won’t have anyone driving (drunk).”

Hidalgo County Sheriff “Eddie” Guerra helped underscore the problem associated with drunk driving when he mentioned that in Texas, someone is killed in an alcohol-related incident every 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, TV commercials for cigarettes are banned, while beer commercials, all showing voluminous amounts of cleavage, keep on rocking. Local beer distributors sponsor city events, say to the tune of $10k, and then sell $15k worth of beer at the municipal “family” events. All entirely altruistic, of course. Help the city, that sort of thing.

If the no-refusal blooddraws were in effect statewide, year-round, that might help, but what would happen to the constitutional rights of drunk drivers? Huh?

If one would take the time to peruse attorney case files at the Hidalgo County District Clerk’s Office, one would be amazed at several things: how many multiple offenders there are; how many times their cases are dismissed for various reasons; how many drunk drivers have kids in the car while they’re behind the wheel; and how many drunk-driving arrests are made each and every day.

If this were Cameron County, Harris County, or Bexar County, there might not be so many DWI arrests because at least some people would be worried that their blood could be drawn to check their blood-alcohol content after a warrant was signed; but neither would the attorneys who handle these cases have as much work with which to contend.

Under the current law in Hidalgo County, mandatory blood-draws only come into play when a crash occurs, even if it’s only a crash with a tree or a parked car. Of course, like what recently happened in San Juan (we’re going to file a public info request to get the accident report), the driver hit a tree and then walked away from the scene. When cops caught up with him some time later, they couldn’t conclusively prove he was the driver, and enough time had passed, that presumably his blood-alcohol level would have dropped, if in fact, it was above .08 when the tree crash had occurred.

Thankfully, he had enough on the ball to walk away from the scene so as to protect his constitutional rights. Otherwise, police would have had the right to take him to a doc and ask for a mandatory blood-draw.

Local Attorney Weighs In

Meanwhile, just prior to the Aug. 29th press conference, the DA’s cousin, Attorney Juan “Sonny” Palacios, who also happens to be a board trustee with the Edinburg CISD, was reminding the public, courtesy of his FB page, that our constitutional rights are of utmost importance. By the way, Palacios handles many DWI cases, including multiple offenders, so he’s well versed when it comes to DWIs.

From Palacios’s FB page post dated Aug. 25th:

“This (the Labor Day no-refusal weekend event) should be renamed “Resistance is Futile Weekend.” Contrary to belief, you have every right to refuse; however, a police officer need only ‘convince’ a judge to sign a warrant for a blood test. MAKE THEM GET A WARRANT! Real leadership respects your privacy and basic human right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure, not use this bully publicity stunt to show the people that they ‘care.’ This is a weekend where your constitutional rights are set aside so the elected official can show their ‘political toughness.’ Don’t do the field sobriety tests. Don’t take the breath test. Always refuse. You never, ever have to prove your innocence. You have the right to remain silent …use it.”

The fact that “Sonny” Palacios is the DA’s cousin does include more than a hint of irony, but it’s clear: Palacios is concerned about constitutional rights. At least for those arrested on suspicion that they are driving drunk.

A woman who’s clearly not in sync with “constitutional rights,” protested on Palacios’s FB page: “Once you drink and drive, you give up your rights. My family’s and other’s safety is more important than a drunk driver. Sorry, but that’s my opinion.”

Then perhaps this woman should move to Cameron County, or Harris County, or Bexar County. Meanwhile, drunk drivers in Hidalgo County remain protected, not counting Labor Day’s no-refusal weekend. At least thanks to guys like “Sonny” Palacios.

Another woman weighed in on Palacios’s FB page regarding his DWI post:

“Stop b*tching and complaining about drunk people having rights to refuse these tests. The moment you decide to drive drunk is the very moment you are breaking the law, and therefore, you give up your rights to get tested…. Or are we saying that a drunk driver has every right to kill someone on the street for drunk driving because it is their given right(?). Let’s use the law and our rights for the good and well-being of our community, and not to back up an irresponsible drunk driver.”

Clearly, these women are behind the times. Why should suspected drunk drivers be stripped of their constitutional rights? Be forced to turn over their blood? Not to mention, a way to beat the rap.

If they don’t take the breathalyzer test, don’t do a field sobriety test, and it’s not Labor Day Weekend with a no-refusal law in place, and they have the money to hire a lawyer, chances are very good in Hidalgo County that they will not be convicted of drunk driving. Where’s the proof they were driving drunk?

Hello. There isn’t any.

Unlike Appellate Judge Nora Longoria’s embarrassing dash-cam video – whoops, she’s falling sideways -- there won’t be any proof that the suspected drunk driver can’t stand up straight. Without a breathalyzer blow, there won’t be any evidence of what their blood-alcohol level was when they were stopped on suspicion of driving drunk.

When it comes to Hidalgo County, drunk drivers are safe to follow their drunk pursuits. If you look at the court records, the multiple offenders seldom face any jail time. Even the ones out on bond who get stopped again. In this county, the judges are fair. The constitutional rights for drunks (suspected or otherwise) must be protected.

Thank you, Sonny, for standing up for them.

Sad Mission Death

Meanwhile, all satirical/ sarcastic writing aside, our condolences, thoughts, and prayers go out to 57-year-old Karen Steitz who was killed over the Labor Day Weekend in the Mission area, mowed over by an alleged drunk driver, Rosemary Vela, 23. Our condolences go out to Steitz’s family and friends as well. At the time of her death, the woman, in the prime of her life, was parked on the side of Exp. 83 trying to remove something from a motorcycle.

At the time of Vela’s arrest, her blood-alcohol level registered above a .10, according to Mission PD. Because her driving involved a crash, her blood-draw was mandatory.

If Vela is found guilty, she’s looking at spending two to 20 years in prison.

Because Hidalgo County has to have one of the highest DWI arrests per capita of any area of the state, anecdotally speaking, looking at the DWI arrests The Advance publishes every week, one would think that our county “leaders” would try and find a way to do what Cameron County did: turn the Labor Day Weekend no-refusal event into a no-refusal deal yearround, 365 days of the week.

Sure, our population is almost double that of Cameron’s, but if Harris County and Bexar County can find a way to do it, so should we. We can find a way to build a new courthouse; find a way to buy 12 used trucks for $1.44 million, so shouldn’t we find a way to help get the drunks off the road?

I know, criminal defense attorneys need to eat.

Our Own DWI Nightmare

Twenty-two years ago, my wife and I awoke to that dreaded 3 a.m. phone call (the one every parent fears) from Beaumont, where my wife’s 23-year-old daughter (my step-daughter) had been involved in a horrific DWI accident. No, she wasn’t the driver. She was the passenger and was hit by another car on the passenger side. So we drove there and stood inside the ICU for 12 days, holding our daughter’s hand while she lay there in a comatose state with

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a breathing tube stuck down her throat, not knowing if she would live or die. Thankfully, she pulled through, but it was a long and painful process in both the hospital and post-rehab. Today, she still suffers from some degree of imbalance when she walks, but thankfully, she’s close to the way she was before the accident.

So, when I read Facebook posts like that made by Edinburg CISD Board Trustee and Criminal Defense Attorney “Sonny” Palacios, I think, brother, if you had to go through what we went through, what our daughter went through, what the family of Karen Steitz is now going through, I’m guessing your take on the rights of drivers suspected of driving drunk might take on a whole new perspective. That real-world experience versus your idea of “constitutional rights” represents a wide divide, especially when it hits so close to home as it did with us.

Contrary to Palacios’s claim that his cousin, Ricardo Rodriguez, and the other local police chiefs, DPS, and the sheriff who supported this Labor Day Weekend’s no-refusal used it as simply a “publicity stunt,” a chance to show their “political toughness,” a way to use their “bully pulpit,” nothing could be further from the truth. Even if it is one weekend out of 52, at least it’s a start.

I suggest “Sonny” Palacios go talk to the families of the victims who have been killed by drunk drivers and explain to them why a no-refusal policy every day of the year is a bad idea. Talk to them about the “constitutional rights” of suspected drunk drivers. I wonder how many of them would agree with him?

Besides, in Palacios’s FB post, it’s indeed worth noting that there is no single mention, no, not one: Don’t drink and drive.

If he had at least included that, I might have more respect for him.