High school students get a close-up look at DUI trial
CASA arranges for case to be tried at LGHS
By Rebecca Ray
Going through a court trial is nerve-racking enough, but to undergo that trial in front of 340 high school students?
It was just that situation that recently confronted Matthew, a 27-year-old from Fremont. The Community Against Substance Abuse (CASA) organization arranged for the trial to take place in the auditorium at Los Gatos High School on April 23 in front of members of the senior class, so that they would learn what could happen if they drive while under the influence of alcohol.
"I thought it was interesting, because you never really get to see a court case," Sarah Cochran said.
"It was a really good experience," Ashley Ogle agreed. "It was very tangible, having it at our school."
Matthew was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol at the trial, and both Cochran and Ogle said they were surprised that he didn't receive a tougher sentence.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Randolf Rice found Matthew guilty of driving with a blood alcohol level above 0.08. Officer Kenneth Henderson of the Santa Clara Police Department testified that Matthew's blood alcohol level was 0.22, according to a Breathalyzer test, after his Dec. 17, 2001, arrest. Henderson stopped Matthew at Homestead Road and Lafayette Street in Santa Clara around 12:45 a.m.
Matthew was sentenced to three years of probation, an approximately $650 fine and a six-day jail sentence, as well as a suspended driver's license for 90 days. Rice also ruled that Matthew should spend six months in a first-time offender program.
Ordinarily, Rice said, he would have fined Matthew $1,251 and ordered him to spend 12 days in jail. However, because Matthew agreed to have his trial in front of a large audience, which Rice described as "courageous and humiliating," he reduced the sentence.
Rice said that what happened during the trial was what students would have seen in a courtroom. For example, both the prosecution and the defense presented arguments and cross-examined witnesses.
The only difference was that the prosecuting and defense attorneys described the conditions of the jail cell in detail, so that the students could appreciate what those convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) must go through, Rice said.
The trial even had a jury, comprising 12 Los Gatos High seniors chosen by their history teachers.
"I definitely learned a lot, because I wasn't aware of the price or expense you pay for making bad decisions like these," juror Dezi Welke said.
Nicole Anderson said it was hard being on the jury, because she felt like she'd be putting Matthew's "life on the line" by sentencing him.
One thing Anderson didn't like, she said, was that those who ran the program didn't present all the information to the jury, which prevented it from reaching a verdict. For instance, she said, the jury didn't receive adequate information about the law that makes it illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level above 0.08.
However, Anderson said, she really liked the trial overall. She said that those who organized it set it up nicely and made it easy to understand.
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department and Traffic Safe Communities Network (TSCN) in Santa Clara County developed the Court in the Schools program. Although similar programs have taken place in other states, Santa Clara County is the first in California to consider offering such a program to high schools on a regular basis. The public health department and TSCN are evaluating Matthew's trial, only the second in the county to occur at a high school, as a prototype for a year-round, countywide program.
Rice and the attorneys, Assistant District Attorney Marc Buller and Deputy Public Defender Alfonso Lopez, answered students' questions about the trial after it ended.
But the lesson wasn't over. CASA invited Kelly Boyd, an independent speaker for fire and police departments, to detail how a drunk driver broadsided her car and almost killed her.
The driver, who had run five red lights before hitting Boyd, was going 79 miles per hour in a 40-mph zone. Boyd suffered a broken leg and pelvis, a laceration on her forehead and a delayed swallowing reflex, causing liquids to travel into her lungs when she drank. She had to be toilet trained, relearn how to walk and what toothbrushes and hairbrushes were used for. About a year and a half of her life was erased from her memory.
Although Boyd was able to graduate from a West Valley College program for students with disabilities, she still copes with learning disabilities and extensive brain damage.
Boyd's doctors told her that she probably survived only because she was a swimmer and had learned how to breathe a certain way.
Ogle said she liked that the event ended with Boyd's speech because it brought the message "close to home."
"It makes you think of your actions and how they affect innocent people for the rest of their lives," Ogle said.
Welke added that the event as a whole made her want to change her friends' minds about driving while under the influence, especially after Boyd's talk.
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