Orange-County-District-Attorney - Law Offices of William W. Bruzzo

Orange County Drunk Driving Cases May Be Affected by Inaccurate Blood Tests Results

Law Offices of William W. Bruzzo — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 18:52:00 GMT

The District Attorney’s Office of Orange County informed several people who were charged and convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol that there may have been blood alcohol level inaccuracies in their test. The Orange County Crime Lab recognized an error in their blood alcohol testing procedure effecting about 2,200 driving under the influence cases. 900 of those cases resulted in convictions. The issue comes down to a 0.003 percentage difference in alcohol level, which according to the LA Times would affect about 200 cases, with only about 20 cases having a blood alcohol content level drop below 0.08%. The discrepancies were attributed to human error in the calibration of the devices used. The lab runs blood samples twice then averages the results. Two devices are used to do the tests; one of them had a calibration point entered incorrectly.

ABC Eyewitness News Channel 7 provided an update on this story on November 23, 2013. You can see the video here.

Orange County Cop May Be Charged with Vehicular Manslaughter

Law Offices of William W. Bruzzo — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:16:00 GMT

Charges have not yet been filed by the Orange County District Attorney against a La Habra police officer who crashed into a civilian vehicle killing the couple inside. The crashed occurred in September when Officer Nancy Garcia was responding to a call regarding a parolee search and went through a red light. Susanne Antuna died at the scene and her husband Charles Antuna died at UCI Medical Center the following morning. A civil suit has been brought on behalf of the couple’s four surviving children. According to the CHP investigation Garcia was driving at a speed of 65mph; they have recommended that she be charged with vehicular manslaughter. See Penal Code Section 192.5.

High School Teacher Charged with Sex Crimes

Law Offices of William W. Bruzzo — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:31:00 GMT

On January 6, 2010 in Orange County, Christopher Ontiveros, a history teacher at Oxford Academy, pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual acts with a 17-year-old student in his class. Several explicit text messages have been discovered, implicating Mr. Ontiveros.

The history teacher started out by tutoring the young female student after school and then later counseling her on medical issues, and eventually, spent time with her outside of school. The student told police that Mr. Ontiveros kissed her once at the end of the last school year and once school resumed in September, the relationship grew more intimate. In one of his numerous texts, he wrote, “Maybe there’s many ways to prove myself, but one for sure is when I get to hold u and share this ecstatic love making, it’s real and binds us.”

The Orange County District Attorney has charged Mr. Ontiveros with three felony counts of sexual penetration by foreign object of a minor (California Penal Code Section 289), one felony count of oral copulation of a minor (California Penal Code Section 288a), one felony count of distributing harmful sexual material to a minor, one felony count of contacting a child with intent to commit sexual penetration, and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery. If convicted, Mr. Ontiveros faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison.