canary in a coal mine

drinking champagne at the Canary Hotel, he thought he'd get away with it, till he met Officer Beutel...

ok so today I get to comment about two drunks..Peter Lance and Tony Denunzio...Denunzio had a front page story about him in the News-Press, much of what was reported in Noozhawk....and we got a sob story from an alcoholic who can't help himself.."oh I only had one cocktail" he claims.... and and..well I had a little more about Tony but just got back from the Lance DUI hearing and we'll deal with Denunzio later...but Darryl Genis is representing him and you know what..I'm not a bit surprised! first, Denunzio drives drunk with a suspended license from a previous DUI, gets busted, then he hires Genis.....geez, do all these drunk guys get stopped at the corner of DUMB and STUPID??

ok... so like I said I just got back from the Lance hearing...it's lunch break time...I got to the courthouse about 10:30..it was a cloudy cool day so I wore pants..long pants...I think I better step up the wardrobe a bit considering the opportunities here....ahh...well...

anyway I get there and I see Kasi and two other cops in the hallway, so she must be waiting to testify...I go in and there's liar Scott Steepleton and Mr. Wimpy...and a few other folks...next time I'm bringing my straw so I can hit Scott with spitballs, the lying little POS....

I sit down and Judge Hill is admonishing a lawyer for drunk Mike Kenny who wrote an offensive brief comparing Judge Hill's court to some backward state courts in the south...just some judge/ lawyer squabbling....damn I love it when they do that!!! I missed the gist of it but I think it had to do with the gag order on the press that DUI lawyers are afraid of....otherwise, they'd have to try their cases in court instead of in the News-Press!

ok..so guess what? Officer Kasi Beutel takes the stand and guess what, Darryl Genis keeps complaining... Judge Hill tells Genis to stop stalling but he goes on and on about Kasi's personal lawyer who was there to defend her (duh) and what Kasi will say and what she won't say and what she might say and what might not say....Genis!! shut up!! ..she's on the witness stand fer chrissakes.. the best way to find out what she'll say is to ask her some questions...GEEZ..these DUI Lawyers are unbelieveable...if I was a little bit dumber, I coulda been one!!

so the DA Horowitz began asking Kasi questions about her work, her experience, pretty much generic questions about her training etc and of course Kasi's lawyer is not there to prevent her from speaking to relevant issues....and speak she did...she was totally engaged and confident and answered with obvious professional knowledge...Genis kept lobbing objections but they were overruled and what transpired should have made Lance and Genis very nervous.. they were very fidgety and I could see their sweaty palms glistening and reflecting the courtroom lights back to the ceiling....Kasi was about to shred them....to pieces....and in the end Lance looked like a pretty pathetic character...

Beutel was very credible and believable and knowledgeable about her job and the instruments she uses to affect a DUI arrest... but when she started talking about the night of Lance's arrest, that's when my ears perked up... Horowitz asked her many questions about that night and here's what I got from it....

"I want to look skinny in my tuxedo"....Peter Lance
it seems Peter Lance had some girl trouble that night in January, New Year's Eve/Day 2011..ok...that happens..you see, I found out along time ago, what woman can do to your soul.....but that's no reason to drink and drive is it? I guess it depends on the woman....

and Lance told Beutel he hadn't planned on driving that night, but well, he thought his girlfriend was gonna stay the night, but she didn't..and previous to that, they or he was at the Canary Hotel where he had two glasses of champagne, then they went home and he had one more glass..then for some reason he was on the road because of an argument they had...he and the gal...

this is the stuff Lance is telling Kasi during the stop like she's his counselor or something... but she seemed concerned for his safety that night.....
Lance is definitely a motormouth....and of course I wasn't there so I'm just writing from notes and memory..but I will tell ya, as Kasi went on, I could barely contain my laughter..I was biting my lip!! basically, she owned Lance, and he knew it..he was looking sheepishly at the desk during most of her testimony...

Kasi said Lance was wearing a tux and cowboy boots and appeared drunker than the 0.11 and 0.09 that he blew, possibly due to lack of food...Lance said he had almost nothing to eat that day because "he wanted to look skinny in his tuxedo"....so maybe that's why he appeared more drunk....but what an odd thing for man to say.. how vain...maybe ok for an Orange County housewife..or a gay guy!!

and when Lance and Genis said previously Beutel had manipulated the breathalyser test, Kasi blew that claim to smithereens...she demonstarted without an actual unit the impossibility of manipulating the reading due to its bulk and how she holds it....she would need an extra set of arms to do any manipulation....

and the forgery issues...I think Lance and Genis realize that they are whipped on this one too.....I didn't see Blanco in the room and after his last testimony, I can see why...I bet he's gone for good...although I did hear he got a gig for Halloween with Madame Rosinka at the San Ysidro Ranch doing psychic palm readings!

Officer Beutel went on about the arrest and how Lance had bloodshot eyes, smelled of alcohol, could barely stand up during the field sobriety tests, and he kept apologizing to her..and then when Kasi determined he was unsafe to drive and handcuffed him, he became belligerent..and his outbursts in the courtroom confirm that type of behavior..

verbal abuse...
then Kasi says Lance got verbally abusive with her...telling her he was an investigative journalist and she should let him go because she had "prosecutorial discretion"...Kasi tells Lance she's not a prosecutor, she's a cop who arrests DUI suspects..and she's arresting him...
then Lance started in with the smack talk about Chief Cam Sanchez and all his money issues and that he was corrupt...Judge Hill asked her to go into detail then she says Lance kept saying things about the DUI quotas and that the "apple doesn't fall far from the tree"..a reference to the chief and the cops both being corrupt, I guess...

then some more details and we broke for lunch...
Lance should plead guilty at this point because he just looks silly now...Kasi's got your number Pete!

I was standing in the hallway downstairs taking pictures of unrelated things since we're on a quasi-camera gag... and Kasi and her husband came up to me and we shook hands..I'd met her husband once before in court and told him I'm here to expose the lies the News-Press and Team Wendy keep telling....I'd never met Kasi and we had a friendly exchange...I think I even blushed a little!

I had to miss the afternoon session... so I told Kasi to give 'em hell...and I'm sure she did....