For the ninth consecutive year, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office was awarded a special DUI Vertical Prosecution Grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The $356,180 grant will fund a vertical prosecution team dedicated to handling driving under the influence (DUI) cases from arrest through sentencing.
Funding from this grant will aid in the prosecution of both alcohol and drug-impaired driving cases including DUI-related death cases. The prosecution team will work with the California’s Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor Program to expand knowledge and resources in the area of drug-impaired driving.
The purpose of the program is to prevent impaired driving and reduce alcohol and drug-impaired traffic deaths and injuries through aggressive prosecution. Based on the latest data from the CHP, in 2017, there were 594 deaths and 11,000 injuries in DUI-related collisions within their jurisdiction alone.
In the past year, our DUI Vertical Prosecution Team filed 320 felony and misdemeanor cases of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Of those cases, 253 were drug or combination alcohol and drug DUIs. Our office, as a whole, filed 2,827 DUI cases in the same time period.
Office of Traffic Safety Director Barbara Rooney states, “Accountability is important in highlighting the dangers and consequences of driving under the influence. Prosecution programs ensure drivers who decide to drive impaired and put others on the road at risk are held accountable.”
Funding for this vertical prosecution program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office is the public prosecutor for the county’s 850,000 residents. The office employs approximately 280 employees including attorneys, investigators, victim advocates, and other professional support staff who strive to seek justice, ensure public safety, and protect the rights of crime victims.
Follow the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office on Twitter @VenturaDAOffice
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