If you or your child, niece, nephew, cousin, or other relative is under 18, driving, and gets a DWI or any other crash-related conviction, or any other alcohol-related conviction, the driver may be without a license for up to two years under “Vanessa’s Law.” See http://www.dps.state.mn.us/ots/Laws_Legislation/vanessa_law.asp . Under this law, a driver who gets a citation after a crash or an alcohol related ticket such as a DWI (OR even an open bottle citation) loses his/her license until 18 if convicted. For a new 16 year old driver, this means a total of two years of license revocation when an adult would get only a 90 day driver’s license revocation for a first-time DWI. These draconian consequences could mean the young driver loses his/her job, after school activities, volunteer and/or internship opportunities, etc. all because of first-time DWI. So, if you are the parent or relative of a young person, don’t let him/her drink and drive. But, if your young person is charged with a DWI or any other crash-related or alcohol-related offense, you must get competent legal counsel to defend against these charges and lessen the driver’s license revocation consequences from a DWI, open-bottle, or even a failure to yield ticket resulting from a crash. To help you through the DWI legal minefield, contact Keller Law Offices at www.KellerLawOffices.com or call 952-913-1421.
Posts Tagged ‘Ramsey County Criminal Defense’
“Vanessa’s Law” can keep you from driving for up to 2 years, unless you have a good DWI attorney like Max A. Keller
Saturday, May 8th, 2010Ramsey Co. Victory for 13 Year Old: Keeping a Clean Record–No Felony Conviction, No Sex Offender Registration
Friday, October 16th, 2009Keller Law Offices was pleased to represent a 13 year old young man recently in Ramsey County. He faced possibly being charged with a first degree criminal sexual conduct charge, which would have been a felony: resulting in a ban on his possessing firearms AND worse, lifetime registration as a sex offender. Max Keller was able to engineer a settlement with the prosecutor whereby his young client admitted to a gross misdemeanor 5th degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC) charge rather than a First Degree CSC felony. As a result, Max’s client served no additional jail time, did not have to register as a sex offender, and did not face a ban on possessing firearms as an adult. The client and his parents were very happy. (62-JV-09-2738)
Job saved for out of state professional in Ramsey County Criminal Vehicular Operation Case
Saturday, September 26th, 2009Our client was a Veterinarian from New York. During her training here, she made the mistake of drinking and driving, and causing an accident–rear ending another vehicle at high speed, injuring the other driver, and testing a .24. Another attorney represented her while the prosecutor debated what to charge the driver with. Over a year after the incident, as the case dragged on, the driver fired the first attorney and turned to us for help. While waiting to be charged, her driver’s license was revoked for 6 months. She was finally charged, about a year after the motor vehicle accident, with gross misdemeanor DWI and gross misdemeanor Criminal Vehicular Operation. She had been living in Minnesota at time of the offense completing her education, but had since moved to New York, having taken a job there. Since she was an out of state resident, she wanted to minimize the number of trips she would have to make to Minnesota for court, as she would have to pay to fly here each time, and would have to take time off from work. Because she lived out of state, the prosecutor had sent her case straight to Warrant status, so the Client had an outstanding arrest warrant on top of her other problems. We arranged for her to fly into Minnesota and turn herself in at a convenient date, and resolved the case in one court appearance. The client wanted at least 30 days to turn herself in to beginning serving her jail sentence. Usually judges will only give defendants 2 weeks to turn themselves in. Our client needed more time in order to arrange things at work so she would not be fired. We convinced the prosecutor and judge to allow our Client 60 days to turn herself in, thereby giving her the chance to save her job as a highly paid veterinarian. I got the judge to give the client four times the normal amount of time to turn herself in. The client and her father were very pleased. (File # 62-CR-09-3291)
Justice for Mentally Impaired Defendant
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009Earlier this month Keller Law Offices won a big victory for the mentally impaired and disabled in Ramsey County. Max Keller represented a young man of 22 years old who has Tourette’s syndrome, Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, and alcohol and marijuana dependency issues. Max’s client was extradited from Georgia to face adult felony probation violation charges based on leaving the state, failure to report change of employment, and failure to report change of residence. The back story is that our client was forced to leave the state to avoid chemical dependency and to avoid being homeless. The probation department and the prosecutor wanted a sentence of 120 days for this poor disabled young man who was trying to turn his life around and who had been doing very well at his job in Georgia. Max Keller engineered a successful resolution to this probation violation case by putting together an army of evidence about the client’s medical conditions, psychological evaluations over the past few years, etc. and convinced the Ramsey County judge to sentence the client to time served, which was about 20 days, rather than the punitive sentence of 120 days sought by the probation department. The client and his parents were extremely happy. (62-K1-07-1259)
