Ventura County – Given the publicity of increased law enforcement activity during the last two weeks of the year with a particular focus upon the prevention of death and destruction on our highways and byways at the hands of drunk and impaired drivers, it would be reasonable to anticipate a heightened degree of caution in this regard among all motorists.
But “reasonable” is not really a standard of measure for some drivers during the Holiday Season, as the arrests of Julio Morales, a 21-year old resident of Oxnard and John Pillsbury, a 48-year old from Canoga Park on the evening of December 20th clearly demonstrated. Both Morales and Pillsbury were enroute through Thousand Oaks between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m., driving down Hillcrest Road—where print and broadcast media had throughout the week notified the public there would be a Thousand Oaks Police Department checkpoint—when they suddenly found themselves in a line of cars between rows of orange cones headed toward deputies’ flashlights and inquiring eyes.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Brad Clifton, Morales and Pillsbury were among the 304 drivers who had a brief conversation with deputies that night, 23 of whom were cited for license violations of one sort or another; but they were the only two busted for driving under the influence of either alcohol or drugs.
Given the law enforcement objective of deterring impaired driving and the strenuous efforts to publicize the timing and location of these checkpoints where, according to Clifton, “they have the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence,” one can only surmise that Pillsbury and Morales don’t believe everything they hear or read.
Both were booked into Ventura County Jail and charged with driving under the influence.
Read more:
EdHat: DUI checkpoint results
