Nevada Highway Patrol Sergeant may face grand jury for fatal marijuana DUI charge

ReviewJournal.com – News – NEVADA HIGHWAY PATROL: Sergeant may face grand jury
Prosecutors claim Lattin, a 22-year highway patrol veteran who supervised a team that investigates fatal crashes, had enough marijuana in his system to impair his driving during the crash, which happened when he was off-duty. They said he smoked at most four hours before the crash occurred on Rainbow Boulevard in the southwest valley.

Killed in the accident was 49-year-old Ying Warren.

Lattin was arrested last week on one felony count of driving under the influence resulting in death. His bail was set at $50,000.

Tests showed that 5.6 nanograms per milliliter of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) were present in the troopers’ system before it was metabolized. After it was metabolized, tests showed 26 nanograms per milliliter in his blood stream.

State law allows drivers to have 2 nanograms per milliliter of THC in their system because smoke might have been ingested secondhand.

Nevada is one of the states with per se drugged driving statutes, which just means you’re guilty of being impaired if you have detectable amounts of drugs in your blood, even if you’re not actually impaired.

It’s tragically ironic that a highway patrolman who investigates fatal crashes and was part of the department’s advertising campaigns to encourage everyone to drive safe and drug/alcohol free would be the one to allegedly cause a fatal DUI crash.

But Lattin is not the only Nevadan who has faced punishment for causing deaths while driving under the influence.  The editorial board of the Las Vegas Review Journal recalls a very similar case involving a non-police officer:

Comparisons to the case of stripper Jessica Williams, who fell asleep at the wheel in March 2000, mowing down and killing six teenagers sentenced for minor infractions to pick up trash in the median of Interstate 15, are unavoidable.

Williams, who used Ecstacy 10 hours before the crash and smoked marijuana two hours before the accident, is serving 18 to 48 years in prison for driving with prohibited substances in her blood, even though her jury determined she was not impaired at the time of the crash.

The county authorities who allowed those teens to be placed in jeopardy along that highway faced no punishment whatever. Taxpayers covered their liabilities.

Will Lattin now get kid glove treatment, compared to what befell Jessica Williams — who was certainly not sent home from the crash site to await developments [like Lattin]? The sergeant’s bail has already been set at a quite manageable $50,000 — while Wiliams’ was set at $5 million.

If the sergeant is indeed found culpable and faces some punishment of less than 18 years in prison, Jessica Williams’ punishment should be commuted to match the highway patrolman’s.

Or do we have different standards of justice in Nevada for cops than we do for strippers?

Don’t be ridiculous!  This is the United States of America, where everyone from the homeless citizen to the President of the United States faces the same blind and fair justice system, where no man or institution is above the law and even the rich and powerful must submit to the same laws as the common folk.

Wow.  I was able to type all of that with a straight face!