FRESNO COUNTY – At a recent press conference, Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp, flanked by members of law enforcement and one civilian, described the number of drunk driving cases in the county as an epidemic comparable to the fentanyl scourge, and said Gov. Newsom and lenient judges are partially to blame for the shocking and appalling number of DUIs.
“We have shockingly high numbers of drunk driving cases here in Fresno County,” Smittcamp said at the press conference on Oct. 30. She then read off the numbers: 3,892 misdemeanor and 270 felony cases in 2022; 4,489 misdemeanor and 308 felony cases in 2023. To date, 3,556 misdemeanor cases and 223 felony cases in 2024.
“Those numbers are shocking,” Smittcamp said. “They’re appalling. Every one of those people had a choice not to drive while they’re drinking.”
The reason for the news conference was to call attention to the fact that Halloween officially kicks off the holiday season. Smittcamp, Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni, interim Fresno Police Chief Mindy Castro, Country Probation Chief Kirk Haynes and members of the California Highway Patrol took turns at the podium to both implore citizens to not drink and drive and to warn them they will be arrested if they are caught driving under the influence.
Encapsulating the message, Zanoni said, “If you are encountered, you will be arrested. If you have been drinking, don’t drive.”
WHY SO HIGH IN FRESNO?
When asked why the county has such high numbers, Smittcamp said, “I think what’s happening is there’s a perfect storm. There are so many things that influence social behaviors.”
Smittcamp pointed to music: “It encourages kids to party and drink.” She alluded to social media: “Social media is incredibly damaging to young people on a lot of fronts. We’re sending bad messages to our kids.” Legalized marijuana: “Many states, including California, have legalized marijuana. Alcohol and drugs are becoming more socially acceptable as time goes on.” She brought up AB 109: “There is no room at the inn at the Fresno County Jail or any county jail in the state of California because of AB 109.” And she pointed a finger at Newsom: “We have a governor that continues to close prisons.
Smittcamp reserved some of her harshest criticism for local judges.
“And as far as hierarchy, we can police and we can prosecute, put people on probation, but we also have to rely on the judges,” she said. “There are a lot of judges in California and here in Fresno who, quite honestly, are very lenient. Judges have a lot of discretion in how to sentence and who to sentence.”
She continued, “We do have judges here in Fresno who will make judicial plea bargains with defense attorneys and defendants,” she said. “And they (judges) are sympathetic. Sometimes more difficult to the drunk driver for their difficult life than they are to the victims.”
Smittcamp said when judges hand down lenient sentences, they perpetuate the problem, which only makes the job of changing the offender’s behavior nearly impossible because it places the onus of change on the individual.
She lamented the current state of legal affairs. “When I was a young prosecutor, when somebody had their first DUI, you could guarantee they got 30 days in jail,” she said.
She said landing in jail was often what the individual needed to understand they had a problem and that they must hit bottom.
“A lot of times, people are stuck in the cycle of addiction, they don’t get help,” said Smittcamp. “Sometimes, intervention by the criminal justice system is their bottom. For anybody who has a family member with alcohol or drug problems, you know the truth. You know that unless that person hits their bottom, they do not get better. They only continue their behavior.”
Smittcamp said that judges who are too lenient with offenders, in fact, enable them to continue their self-destructive behavior.
“Trying to get that person (judge) to understand that, that person (offender) they continue to let off one time after the other after the other, without significant penalties, you are relying on that person – without jail time or without inpatient programming time – to get better by their own volition,” she said.
THE DEATH OF THE PULIDO FAMILY
Juan Pulido was the lone civilian who spoke at the news conference. When Smittcamp introduced Pulido at the start of the conference, she said, “I am shocked and astonished that he is able to wake up in the morning and put one foot in front of the other.”
Here is what happened in Pulido’s words.
“In 2020, on New Year's Day, my family took a trip to San Luis Obispo. On the way home, they called and said they were happy. On Highway 33, there was a driver that had been partying with his friends and no one stopped him. They allowed him to drive. He was speeding, over 90 MPH, and he hit my family's vehicle. He pushed it off the road and it burst into fire. I ended up losing my whole family there. The drunk driver ended up dying as well. Nine people died that night. Be a good friend. If your friends are going to party, stop them from driving. Maybe someone doesn't have to live what I am living.”
Four of Pulido’s children were among the dead. They were 14, 13, 12 and 9. He said what keeps him going each day are the memories of his children.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Smittcamp said DUI is “one of the most preventable crimes we have.” She said the way to prevent drinking and driving accidents is by planning, by organizing and by communicating.
“It is about who you are,” she said. “What you’re doing, where you’re going and who you could potentially affect.” Smittcamp said with all the options available to avoid driving drunk – Lyft and Uber, designated drivers, taxis – there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to drive while under the influence.
But she conceded that intoxicated individuals often cannot be reasoned with.
“We all know when people consume alcohol, the first thing that goes out the window and the first thing that is affected is your judgment,” she said. “If you’ve ever argued with a drunk person, it’s not fun. Especially a drunk person who wants to drive. Drunk people are not fun to have confrontations with.”
She continued, “Every person who has had a couple of drinks thinks, ‘Oh, I can do it. I can manage it.’ And those are the people who kill families. They kill people. They are using weapons. Cars are weapons.”
When planning and prevention fail, there are consequences.
“If you are one of the thousands of people in Fresno County who has been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony DUI,” said Smittcamp, “and you choose to do that behavior again and someone is killed, you can and will be prosecuted for second degree murder. We call them Watson murders.”
For emphasis, Smittcamp doubled down.
“Let me repeat that: if you have a conviction for DUI, felony or misdemeanor, and you choose to do that again, you can and will be prosecuted for murder if you engage in that behavior again and someone is killed.”
