CARSON CITY, Nevada (AP) – The Nevada Supreme Court has shut down a maneuver by at least one Orlando sex crimes attorney that allowed clients 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, says the high court’s ruling Wednesday was 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.
“There was never a loophole in the law,” Nelson said, adding that the court merely cleared up the law and only one lawyer at www.gabriellawteam.com, 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’ll file a federal lawsuit.
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.