DWI Hit Parade!

Campaign Totals for North Carolina 2012 Christmas Holidays thru New Years

RALEIGH —Governor’s Highway Safety Program Director Becky Wallace announced today that state and local law enforcement officers cited 3,147 motorists for driving while impaired during the Holiday “Booze It & Lose It” campaign, which ran Dec. 7 – Jan. 2. A total of 110,692 traffic and criminal citations were issued statewide.
“These numbers show how the efforts of dedicated law enforcement officers across the state are making our roads safe,” Wallace said.
During the GHSP campaign, officers statewide conducted 13,445 sobriety checkpoints and dedicated patrols. Counties with the highest number of DWI citations were Guilford (257), Wake (246) and Forsyth (191).
Officers also issued 6,381 safety belt and 1,134 child passenger safety violations, 30,364 speeding violations and 3,543 drug charges. In addition, they apprehended 3,009 fugitives from justice and recovered 184 stolen vehicles.
For more information regarding county-by-county citation totals or other “Booze It & Lose It” activities, visit the GHSP website.

From Charlotte Observer
RALEIGH — James Crouch was an aggressive lawyer, but he proved to be a reckless client.
On Tuesday, the 46-year-old Wake County resident pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges in a DWI backdating scheme that ended the reign of a popular District Court judge and created a somber mood in a typically collegial courthouse.
As judges, lawyers, family and friends watched, Crouch became a felon and lost his law license the same day.
“It’s an amazing fall from grace for James,” said Joseph B. Cheshire V, the Raleigh attorney who defended him. “It’s been a hard fall that he will acknowledge at the time of his sentencing is one of his own doing.”
Defense attorneys Cheshire, Brad Bannon and Alan Schneider were ready to fight the charges lodged against Crouch in July. But last week, the team discovered that Crouch had altered records from some of the DWI cases at the crux of the allegations… MORE