Jayson Williams is already in prison for accidentally killing a limo driver, but the former NBA star still is contending with another criminal case.

Williams has a Manhattan court date Friday in a drunken-driving case stemming from a car wreck a week before his January guilty plea in the driver's 2002 death.

The former New Jersey Nets player has pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated.

His lawyers didn't immediately return calls Thursday. One of them, Oscar Holt III, told the Daily News earlier this week that Williams wants to put the DWI case behind him so he "can continue to work on changing the course of his life."

Williams, who retired from basketball in 2000, had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit after his Mercedes-Benz SUV crashed into a tree around 3 a.m. on Jan. 5 near a Manhattan highway, prosecutors said.

Police found him sitting in the passenger seat. He told them someone else was driving and had left, but prosecutors have said surveillance video and witnesses establish he had been alone in the car.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

Jayson Williams is already in prison for accidentally killing a limo driver, but the former NBA star still is contending with another criminal case.

Williams has a Manhattan court date Friday in a drunken-driving case stemming from a car wreck a week before his January guilty plea in the driver's 2002 death.

The former New Jersey Nets player has pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated.

His lawyers didn't immediately return calls Thursday. One of them, Oscar Holt III, told the Daily News earlier this week that Williams wants to put the DWI case behind him so he "can continue to work on changing the course of his life."

Williams, who retired from basketball in 2000, had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit after his Mercedes-Benz SUV crashed into a tree around 3 a.m. on Jan. 5 near a Manhattan highway, prosecutors said.

Police found him sitting in the passenger seat. He told them someone else was driving and had left, but prosecutors have said surveillance video and witnesses establish he had been alone in the car.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

His fiancee, Kathryn Major, told police that she and Lohan argued last month over a missed cell phone call at the home they shared in Water Mill on Long Island. Major says Lohan kicked and threatened her.

Lohan has denied all the charges.

Lindsay Lohan is estranged from her father.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

An illegal immigrant awaiting a deportation ruling has been charged with killing a nun and critically injuring two others in a drunken driving crash that has sparked criticism of how immigration enforcement is handled.

A local official in the Virginia suburb where the crash happened and a congressman from another state have criticized federal officials for not removing the suspect from the country after previous arrests, and even U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano questioned why his deportation was taking so long. A spokeswoman for the nuns' order, meanwhile, said they're upset that the tragedy is being politicized.

Twenty-three-year-old Carlos Martinelly Montano, who police say is illegally in the country, is charged with drunken driving, involuntary manslaughter and felony driving on a revoked license after the accident on Sunday in Virginia's Prince William County. Montano was arrested two times before and charged with drunken driving, according to county police, and has also been arrested in separate incidents for other traffic-related offenses. Police say Montano, who is from Bolivia, was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after at least one arrest, and a prosecutor said he knew of at least one other occasion he'd been referred to immigration officials.

The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that Montano was released in 2008, pending an immigration judge's review of his case. As of August 2010, a judge had not ruled on his deportation.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called the crash a "terrible thing" when asked about the incident during an unrelated news conference at D.C. police headquarters Tuesday. Napolitano said she immediately asked officials to look into the situation.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

The wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. settled her drunken-driving case without jail time Thursday night by pleading guilty to a minor charge.

Mary Kennedy admitted in court that her driving ability was impaired when she drove over a curb outside a school in Bedford, 30 miles north of New York City, in May.

Robert Kennedy, who has reportedly filed for divorce, was not in court. He also was not among the many relatives and friends who wrote supportive letters to Town Judge Kevin Quaranta.

"He was not asked," said Mary Kennedy's lawyer, Kerry Lawrence.

Robert Kennedy's mother, Ethel Kennedy, and his sister Kerry Kennedy wrote letters, with Ethel Kennedy telling the judge her daughter-in-law is "kind, loving, gentle and generous."

Mary Kennedy, 50, would not comment after the court session. Her lawyer said she was "pleased to get some closure."

The charge of driving while ability impaired is a violation and carries no jail time. The judge fined Kennedy $500, suspended her driver's license for 90 days and ordered her to attend two drunken-driving programs.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

Torn was arrested in December 2008 near his home in Salisbury. He was stopped while driving in the breakdown lane with a Christmas tree tied atop his Subaru.

Bantam Superior Court Judge Cara Eschuck dismissed the charge Friday because Torn completed a program that gives drunken-driving defendants a chance to clear their records.

But another case is pending against the 79-year-old: charges that he broke into a bank in January while intoxicated and armed. He returns to court Tuesday in that case.

Torn won an Emmy for "The Larry Sanders Show." Screen credits include the "Men in Black" movies.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

Pittsburgh DUI Defense Lawyer

Just as you wouldn’t hire your family doctor to perform brain surgery, you should be very careful when selecting an attorney to defend you if you’ve been charged with DUI. With the continuing emphasis on DUI in the media and the trend toward increased penalties, even for first time offenders with a low blood-alcohol concentration (“BAC”), it is important that you choose an attorney knowledgeable in all areas of DUI law. It might be ok to hire a “jack-of-all trades” attorney to sell your house or write your will, but you may want to think twice about this when your freedom is potentially at stake.

There are defenses available to almost every set of facts in a DUI case, depending upon the specific type of evidence in each case. The trick is knowing what to look for and how to use those facts in creating a defense to the allegation of driving under the influence. Questions to think about are: did the officer have cause to stop you, cause to have you perform field sobriety tests, and cause to take you for a chemical test? Were the field sobriety tests valid? Do they have any correlation to intoxication? Was the officer trained in the field sobriety tests that you performed? Did the officer inform you about the implied consent rule? Was the breath machine used to test you calibrated? Was the officer who gave the test trained and certified to give you the breath test (which is required)? Do you have any medical problems that might have impacted your performance on field sobriety tests or influenced your BAC reading? Of course, this information in the hands of an attorney that does not know how to evaluate it is useless.

Another important piece of evidence that will be used against you is the police report. In addition to the countless police reports that I wrote over my 15-year police career, I also spent 7 years as a lieutenant reading and approving thousands upon thousands of police reports. This is a critical piece of evidence that will be used against you in your case.

http://www.gbmlawpittsburgh.com/dui-defense

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.