http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/boy_16_gets_10-year_probation_in_fatal_crash_that_killed_4_people_state_had/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_email

A 16-year-old driver has been sentenced to 10 years of probation by a Texas juvenile court judge after pleading guilty last week to drunken driving and intoxication manslaughter concerning a June chain-reaction accident he caused that killed four people.

The youth, who is not identified because he is a juvenile, also pleaded guilty to two counts of intoxication assault, concerning two passengers riding in the bed of his pickup who were critically injured (one is paralyzed and communicates by blinking). The defendant will be held in detention in Tarrant County while a potential treatment program is arranged for him, the Star-Telegram reports. His blood-alcohol level after the crash was 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for an adult.

In a controversial Tuesday ruling, State District Judge Jean Boyd rejected a call by state prosecutors for a 20-year prison term and said it would be better for the teen to receive expensive residential treatment in California that his wealthy parents have agreed to pay for. The program, which can cost $450,000 annually, is intended to address what a psychologist described as a family situation in which the teen had money and material possessions but little parental guidance, stunting his emotional growth, the newspaper recounts.

A Dallas Morning News Opinion Blog post derided the judge's "poor little rich boy" stance and questioned, as other critics have also done, why the standard of justice seemingly may be different for those with money.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/the-right-to-an-attorney-who-actually-does-his-job/?_r=0

"

On Dec. 4, a federal judge in Washington State issued a stinging rebuke of the public-defense systems of two towns near Seattle, finding them so inadequate that they violate the Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel in criminal prosecutions.

Calling it “little more than a ‘meet and plead’ system,” U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik excoriated the cities of Mt. Vernon and Burlington, Washington, for failing to provide meaningful representation to indigent defendants facing misdemeanor charges."

"

In CT, teens were arrested for not stopping someone from driving who was allegedly drunk.

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/teens-charged-as-accomplices-for-letting-friend-drive-drunk-194849860.html

"Two 17-year-old boys arrested in Glastonbury, CT on Thursday are finding out the hard way that you can. They were charged with misdemeanors, as police say they knew their friend Jane Modlesky, also 17, was too drunk to drive when she got behind the wheel of an SUV in July before crashing into a tree and dying. "

"“They very well knew that she was intoxicated and should not have been driving,” Agent James Kennedy of the Glastonbury Police Department tells NBC Connecticut."

"In Washington in 2002, for example, a 29-year-old woman was charged with being an accomplice to drunken and reckless driving after she was accused of convincing someone to get behind the wheel; the subsequent accident killed six people, while she was the only survivor. She was later acquitted by the state Supreme Court. While that was a rare case, a more frequent situation is that of bartenders being held liable, under state "dram shop" laws, for continuing to serve drunk patrons who then get behind the wheel of a vehicle."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amsterdam-has-a-deal-for-alcoholics--work-paid-in-beer-164244203.html

“You have to look sharp,” said Mr. Schiphorst, 60, a former construction worker.

His workday begins unfailingly at 9 a.m. — with two cans of beer, a down payment on a salary paid mostly in alcohol. He gets two more cans at lunch and then another can or, if all goes smoothly, two to round off a productive day.

“I’m not proud of being an alcoholic, but I am proud to have a job again,” said Mr. Schiphorst, the grateful beneficiary of an unusual government-funded program to lure alcoholics off the streets by paying them in beer to pick up trash.

In addition to beer — the brand varies depending on which brewery offers the best price — each member of the cleaning team gets half a packet of rolling tobacco, free lunch and 10 euros a day, or about $13.55.

"
The idea of providing alcoholics with beer in return for work, he said, was first tried in Canada. It took off in the Netherlands in part because the country has traditionally shunned “zero tolerance” in response to addiction. Amsterdam now has three districts running beer-for-work street cleaning programs, and a fourth discussing whether to follow suit. Other Dutch cities are looking into the idea, too."

"“If you just say, ‘Stop drinking and we will help you,’ it doesn’t work,” said Mr. Wijnands, whose foundation gets 80 percent of its financing from the state and runs four drug consumption rooms with free needles for hardened addicts. “But if you say, ‘I will give you work for a few cans of beer during the day,’ they like it.”

To shield the government from criticism that it is subsidizing drinking, the Rainbow Foundation insists that it pays for the beer given to Mr. Schiphorst and his fellow alcoholics out of its own funds. “For the government, it is hard to say, ‘We buy beer for a particular group of people,’ because other people will say, ‘I would like some beer, too,’ ” Mr. Wijnands said.

“It would be beautiful if they all stopped drinking, but that is not our main goal,” he added. “You have to give people an alternative, to show them a path other than just sitting in the park and drinking themselves to death.”"

If you have been arrested in Massachusetts and need a criminal defense lawyer in the Brockton area, give Attorney Scott Bradley a call for a free phone consultation. Or see his website at: http://www.ma-criminal-lawyer.com/

His office is in West Bridgewater MA.