Commonwealth v. K.B.

2^ND OFFENSE OUI: REDUCED TO 1^ST OFFENSE OUI

Defendant was convicted of Operating under the Influence of Alcohol (OUI) in 2012 in the Taunton District Court. In 2017, Defendant was charged with OUI (second offense) arising out of an arrest in West Bridgewater. In the new OUI, Defendant had a blood-alcohol-content of 0.27%, which is three times over the legal limit of 0.08%. On the scene, Defendant was described as “legless” and officers have to physically assist him into the police cruiser and they had to physically assist him into the police station. The booking process was videotaped and the Defendant was obviously intoxicated. He admitted to being an alcoholic and taking prescribed medication to treat his alcohol addiction.

Result: A second-offense OUI may be reduced to a first-offense OUI if the first-offense OUI occurred more than 10 years ago; this is known as a Cahill disposition, Commonwealth v. Cahill, 442 Mass. 127 (2004). In this case, the Defendant did not qualify, technically, for a Cahill disposition because his first-offense OUI did not occur more than 10 years ago. In fact, the first-offense OUI occurred approximately five years ago. Even though the Defendant did not technically qualify for a Cahill disposition, Attorney Patrick J. Noonan convinced the judge to reduce the second-offense OUI down to a first-offense OUI and the Judge imposed a first-offense OUI sentence instead of a second-offense sentence. With a second-offense OUI, a Defendant faces more severe penalties. In this case, Defendant received the benefit of a first-offense sentence.