Officer says he was sober at time of boating accident---(California)

CaptnKirk · 03-23-2006, 05:45 AM

Quote:

A Los Angeles police officer conceded Tuesday that he hit and critically injured a man riding a personal watercraft on Lake San Antonio and left the scene last year, but said he was unaware of the accident at the time and was sober.

It wasn't until immediately after the accident -- and what he thought was a routine beer run to the marina store -- that he started drinking, David Guzman testified.

In the next two hours, before his arrest on felony drunken boating and hit-and-run boating charges, he drank eight to 10 beers, he said from the stand.

Guzman is on trial in a Marina courtroom on those charges as well as misdemeanor drunken boating charges. If convicted of all charges, he faces a maximum of seven years in prison and would be prohibited from serving as a police officer.

The Ventura County resident told jurors Tuesday he was guilty of operating his boat under the influence two hours after the accident that injured Jason Penalba, but was sober when he unknowingly hit him.

Guzman said he, his wife, their 1-year-old son and another couple spent the afternoon at a beach on the lake. Because he was caring for his son, Guzman said, he drank less than two beers all day. About 5 p.m., he said, he and his friend, William Jeffers, motored up the lake to the marina store to buy beer.

Guzman said the lake was choppy in the afternoon winds and that the bow of his $60,000 speedboat "slapped" loudly against the water as he made his way across the lake. But with the roar of the high-powered boat and the stereo playing, he said, he didn't hear or feel a collision.

At one point, Guzman said, a bag that he had stowed on the boat flew up and he slowed the boat briefly to look for its contents, but didn't see anyone in the water. Witnesses testified that the boat slowed and two men peered toward Penalba, who had been knocked violently from the back of the personal watercraft and was bleeding profusely in the water.

Guzman said he passed the location on his way back to the beach, but did not notice two boats that had come to the aid of Penalba and his friend, Erik Shirey, who was driving the personal watercraft.

It wasn't until after 7 p.m., after Guzman dropped his family and friends at the marina, that he was approached by a Monterey County parks ranger in a boat and informed that there had been an accident.

About an hour later, after refusing to go through a field sobriety test, Guzman's breath test showed his blood alcohol level at 0.11 percent. A blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent is the level at which a person is presumed to be impaired under the law.

In testimony Monday, Marianne Perhach, a criminalist for the Department of Justice, testified it would take seven to nine drinks for a person of Guzman's size to reach a blood-alcohol level of 0.11 percent. On the other hand, she hypothesized, that person could have had 10 to 13 drinks and stopped drinking for three hours before being tested at 0.11. In that scenario, she said, the person would have had a 0.16 percent blood-alcohol level at 5 p.m.

Defense attorney Richard Rosen argued unsuccessfully that the felony drunken-driving charge should be thrown out because there was no direct evidence that Guzman was drinking before the accident. Judge Lydia Villarreal denied the motion based in part on the fact that there were 44 empty beer cans found on Guzman's boat when he was arrested.

On Monday, Guzman's wife, Erin, testified that some of those beer cans came from another couple who was using the beach. Most of the rest were consumed by her, Jeffers and his wife. She supported her husband's testimony saying he drank only one or two beers before 5 p.m., after which she took over care of the baby and Guzman drank 10 beers.

Prosecutor Rolando Mazariego attacked Erin Guzman's credibility, noting that she could not remember exactly how many beers she or the other couple drank, but remembered her husband's intake.

"Were you counting how many beers he had?" he asked.

"No," she answered.

"Then how do you get to 10?... That's one beer every 12 minutes and you weren't concerned at all?"

"All he had to do was drive us back to the shore. I wasn't really concerned," she said.

Mazariego challenged the defendant's credibility, pointing out that Guzman, who is trained as a police officer to pay attention to detail, did not notice the accident or the rescue helicopter that landed across the lake from him to whisk Penalba to UCLA Medical Center for treatment of a shattered pelvis and lacerated spleen and liver.

Also Monday, jurors traveled into the courthouse's parking lot to view Guzman's boat and the personal watercraft, whose passenger seat had been ripped off. In a driving rain, jurors peered closely at paint smudges and a large gash in the bow of the Ultra 247XS.

Guzman maintains the smudges came from the dock at Lake San Antonio, but concedes that paint analyses shows the gash came from the splintered personal watercraft.

Monterey Herald

99gp1200 · 03-23-2006, 02:39 PM

Anyone know how the victim is doing?

vitaly · 03-23-2006, 02:47 PM

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Originally Posted by 99gp1200

Anyone know how the victim is doing?

"lacerated spleen and liver"... bad news for sure...

willycrumb · 03-23-2006, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vitaly

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99gp1200

Anyone know how the victim is doing?

"lacerated spleen and liver"... bad news for sure...

Not life threatening though.

This guy is a f'ing joke....the cop everyone hates probably. Since when do cops make that kinda money?

IndianSloughRider · 03-23-2006, 03:59 PM

Cops make a lot of money in respect to what they do. I know of cops that make easily over 100K with overtime. Typical government waste

03-23-2006, 04:10 PM

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Originally Posted by BrendanCronin

Cops make a lot of money in respect to what they do. I know of cops that make easily over 100K with overtime. Typical government waste

In this case the officer is a piece of garbage, of that I have no doubt. However a few of my friends have sacrificed and now own rather expensive toys, sometimes they just live paycheck to paycheck to do it. Therefore could you please explain your last statement to me? I would like to hear how you came to this conclusion.

IndianSloughRider · 03-23-2006, 04:22 PM

Well for starters the beginning salary out here in a few bay area cities starts at 106k which is based on a regualr work week. So you throw some extra overtime in and they are making great money for people that at most have a B.A. though many only hold high school educations.

CaptnKirk · 03-23-2006, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miami-k9

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrendanCronin

Cops make a lot of money in respect to what they do. I know of cops that make easily over 100K with overtime. Typical government waste

In this case the officer is a piece of garbage, of that I have no doubt. However a few of my friends have sacrificed and now own rather expensive toys, sometimes they just live paycheck to paycheck to do it. Therefore could you please explain your last statement to me? I would like to hear how you came to this conclusion.

A police officer making over 100k even WITH overtime is reaching a little bit. I work for General Motors and everyone knows what THEIR pay is like, I come close to 100k. Even the highest paid officers (California) make somewhere between 50-55k straight time.

Captn---

IndianSloughRider · 03-23-2006, 04:46 PM

To be a chp cadet out here you make 50 k with a free place to stay during training. That is 50 k and they arent even patrolling. 100 k is easily attainable because so many departments are understaffed and overwhelmed resulting in so much overtime. And when you start clocking overtime you start to make some serious bucks. It is sad that most government officals arent business savvy enough to realize that with all the overtime paid that they could just hire more officers. But on the otherhand, I am sure that these unions dont want that because it will create lower salaries for their already highly overpaid and undereducated constituents.

CaptnKirk · 03-23-2006, 05:03 PM

Sounds probable...but after some research I only found one department that comes close to the 100k mark, Oakland PD.

Oakland PD

As for CHPs...even with an avarage annual OT of $10k along with a $3,100 education incentive their top step income is just over $82k.

CHP

Here's just a glimpse of other major cities...

NYPD

Boulder, CO.

Real-time Salary Survey Information For Police or Sheriff's Patrol Officer

Either way...for most, they are WAY underpaid. I was actually shocked to see some of the salaries as low as they are. Whatever they are paid, I'm just glad they are out there.

Captn---