HOLLISTER
– Gilroy City Councilman Charles Morales again pushed back a
pretrial court date for a charge of driving under the influence of
alcohol. Morales and his attorney, Milton Gonzales, are awaiting
results of a private retest of the alcohol content in Morales’
blood.
HOLLISTER – Gilroy City Councilman Charles Morales again pushed back a pretrial court date for a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol. Morales and his attorney, Milton Gonzales, are awaiting results of a private retest of the alcohol content in Morales’ blood.
California Highway Patrol officers reported Morales’ breathalyzer test during the June 29 arrest showed a blood-alcohol content of .236 percent, nearly three times the legal limit of .08 percent. The defense has hired a private lab in Alameda to retest the blood sample.
Neither Morales nor his attorney appeared in San Benito County court Tuesday morning. Instead, Hollister attorney Arthur Cantu made a special appearance and asked that Morales’ pretrial conference be pushed back until after the new blood-test results are in. Judge Steven Sanders postponed this conference until Nov. 13.
Cantu declined comment afterward. Gonzales’ legal assistant, Robert Landry, returned a phone call left for Gonzales.
“He was tied up,” Landry said of his employer. “He had a few other things he had to do.”
As for Morales, Landry pointed out that the defendant is not required to appear personally for a misdemeanor pretrial conference.
A pretrial conference is an opportunity for the defense, the prosecution and the judge to discuss alternative resolutions to a trial. Morales will have the options to change his not-guilty plea and be sentenced or maintain his plea and go to trial.
If convicted of DUI, Morales could face 10 days to a year in jail, have his driver’s license suspended for 18 months and be forced to pay more than $1,500 in fines and court fees, according to state law.
Gonzales has said Morales has no plans to step down from the City Council seat he has held since 1992. His term ends in November 2005.
Morales’ has at least two prior DUI convictions: one from a Dec. 11, 1999, arrest in Santa Clara County and at least one in 1986, for which court records have been purged but which he admitted to in 1999.
The San Benito district attorney has not charged Morales with a probation violation for the June arrest, even though he was on probation at the time from the 1999 DUI. He had a minor in the car during that incident and blew a .18 on a breathalyzer test. His probation expired about two months ago.
CHP filed the June 29 charge in San Benito County court since the officer who arrested Morales reportedly first saw him driving erratically just south of the Santa Clara County line, heading north on state Highway 25. By the time the CHP officer pulled Morales over and arrested him, they were inside Santa Clara County on Bolsa Road.
More than one CHP officer said Morales smelled strongly of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. According to the CHP report, he did extremely poorly in on-site sobriety tests such as standing on one leg.
Morales retired Aug. 1 from his position as a youth probation officer at Holden Ranch for Boys, a home for troubled youth in Morgan Hill.
