Special DUI Prosecutor
San Andreas, CA — Calaveras County is warning motorists if your caught driving under the influence they have a new secret weapon called the RID team. That stands for Reduce Impair Driving and the team includes a highly trained prosecutor that specializes in these types of cases. Thanks to a $160,000 state grant, the county has implemented its Special DUI Prosecution Program. That program allows for the prosecutor to work the case from start to finish.
Calaveras County DUI Prosecutor Mauro Quintero says, “Officers will call me to the scene of the crime. For example, I can ask them for certain key things, like photographs or measurements to be taken. Also, depending on what the driver has in their system, sometimes we need to write up a search warrant for the officers to go to their house to see if they have any other drugs at their house.”
The grant is from the California Office of Traffic Safety. Quintero says his team will be working closely with that department to monitor the program.
State figures for 2010, the most recent year available, show more than 300 people were arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated in Calaveras County, and in Tuolumne County there were 429 in 2011.
