SHASTA COUNTY DRUNK DRIVING PROSECUTOR CHARGED WITH DRUNK DRIVING
Nov. 23, 2007--A Shasta County deputy district attorney who specializes in prosecuting DUI cases was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of drunken driving.
Sgt. Bill East of the California Highway Patrol said officers arrested Patricia Jean "PJ" Haley, 28, at 2:38 a.m. after an officer pulled her over on Argyle Road south of Hartnell Avenue in Redding on suspicion of a routine traffic violation.
East said the officer noticed Haley appeared to be driving under the influence and gave her a field sobriety test. She had a passenger in the car, he said.
Her breath registered a 0.10 blood alcohol level, East said. The legal limit for driving in California is 0.08. Haley was booked into the Shasta County jail on misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and released. Assistant District Attorney Daniel Flynn said he's overseeing an investigation into possible disciplinary action against Haley and couldn't comment.
Flynn said he would contact District Attorney Jerry Benito, who is on vacation, and relay the newspaper's request for comment.
Benito did not call back Wednesday.
A secretary in the District Attorney's office said Haley was off this week. Haley did not respond to an e-mail request for an interview. Haley's arrest comes at a time when the Shasta County District Attorney's Office and other area law enforcement agencies have stepped up their drunken driving enforcement efforts, with increased checkpoints, more officers and public DUI awareness campaigns.
In August, Shasta County supervisors accepted a $256,982 state grant to boost prosecutions of misdemeanor arrests for driving under the influence.
The money made it possible for Benito's office to hire an attorney to work full time on the cases.
The grant came after the city of Redding received money for two officers specializing in drunken-driving cases and as the county Superior Court is seeking a grant to set up a DUI court.
Benito said at the time the Office of Traffic Safety grant was awarded that it would help the county reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities and injuries.
From 2003 to 2005, 43 people were killed in Shasta County in alcohol-related crashes.
Haley was admitted to the State Bar of California in December 2004 after graduating from the University of California at Davis and UCLA School of Law, according to bar records.
COMMENT: Now, had this been in San Diego, the City Attorney's office would try to protect her and quietly remove the case for proceedings in a "dark" department like they have done before. I'd like to hope she gets the same punishent she gives if she is guilty, but she is presumed innocent. We must remember the breath tests are extremely fallible, cause unusually high results for many reasons, and many times register mouth alcohol. Additionally, merely blowing into the machine stronger or weaker can alter the result of a test. And, the experience of the cop administering the test can alter the results. So, while it warms my soul to see one of the righteous get arrested, we must remember that at a .10, she may have a very defensible case.
