Judge was wrong to dismiss DUI against woman who said she was escaping abuse, DA says

Editors note: This story describes domestic violence.

The judge was wrong to dismiss the DUI case against a woman who said she was escaping an abusive boyfriend, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow wrote in an email to The Tribune.

The emailed statement, which was also posted to Facebook, said 55-year-old Anne Marie Nunez “did not present as someone who was afraid for her safety but merely extremely intoxicated.”

Nunez had told officers who responded to a report of her and her boyfriend fighting that she had been hit and threatened, but officers ultimately left her with the man inside his van after warning her she was too drunk to drive.

She later got into her own car, which was parked nearby, and drove it 30 feet to a new parking spot, prompting a DUI arrest.

Her case went to trial in February but ended in a mistrial in March after jurors could not agree whether she was at fault for moving her car to a different spot in the parking lot while visibly intoxicated.

San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Jesse Marino dismissed the case Monday, ruling Nunez moved her car while intoxicated out of necessity.

Woman could have killed an innocent person, DA says

Dow said his response was directly to questions from The Tribune’s editorial board and focused on details he felt were not emphasized by the defense or judge.

His response focused on the other parts of the video, which included Nunez’s visible intoxication, her admissions to drinking and being drunk, and her worries of how the first encounter, which ended in a warning, may effect her record given she was a teacher.

In the same encounter where she told officers her boyfriend had hit her and threatened to strangle her with a towel, she also said her boyfriend was a “good guy” and had been “really good” to her.

The same video also shows Pismo Beach police officer Kyle Laughlin noting that Nunez had a restraining order against her boyfriend that only allowed peaceful contact.

During her arrest, body camera video showed, Nunez admitted to drinking 12 beers that day.

On a preliminary blood alcohol test, she blew a .18%, court documents said, and during the evidentiary test, her blood alcohol content was .21% and .20%, which is more than twice the legal limit.

“The video evidence unmistakably showed the defendant was extremely intoxicated,” Dow said.

Nunez’s defense attorney, Trace Milan, argued his client moved her car out of necessity — a legal defense that functions similarly to self-defense in a murder trial.

For legal necessity, it must be shown that the only reason a person committed a crime was because it was necessary and there were no other options available to prevent a greater harm.

The necessity defense must be proven by a preponderance of evidence, meaning more likely than not, whereas the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Eight jurors from the first trial believed Nunez was guilty of driving drunk, while four believed she acted out of necessity.

For necessity to be proven, Dow said in a phone call with The Tribune, there must be an imminent threat to one’s life or safety. Nunez did not appear scared for her life in the body camera footage, he said.

According to Dow’s statement, it is “standard practice” for his office to retry a case when eight or more jurors are in favor of guilt.

Second jury should have heard case, district attorney says

In his ruling to dismiss the case Monday, Marino said the officers who responded to the scene “made the wrong decision” and should have separated Nunez when she reported abuse during the first encounter.

Marino also said he does not believe that Nunez was planning to drive on the road, but rather she was simply trying to find safety from an abusive boyfriend who has previously beaten her to the point of hospitalization.

The judge believed Nunez felt she had no other options after officers failed to help her before. Plus, despite driving drunk, there was less risk given the short distance and the slow speed in which she drove in the relatively empty parking lot.

She was in more danger staying in the van, Marino said.

Dow, however, said the officers did “the absolutely right thing by arresting this highly intoxicated woman for driving in the parking lot.”

“Had they not done so, she could have easily driven onto the roadway and killed an innocent person,” Dow said.

But Marino found that alleging Nunez would continue driving was speculation and could not be proven.

Dow said Marino should have allowed a second jury to hear the case and decide whether Nunez was at fault for driving drunk in the parking lot.

Marino said he waited to decide whether to dismiss the case because he wanted to make sure he heard all the evidence from both the prosecution and defense.

“If I was a juror,” Marino said in his ruling, “I would have had no problem taking this as a necessity defense.”

In his response, Dow included statistics on drunken driving from the National Highway Safety Administration, which showed the number of DUI-related deaths increased 20% from 2019 to 2020 in California, while the share of driving fatalities involving alcohol increased 4%.

Alcohol-impaired driving deaths accounts for 30% of the state’s driving fatalities, which increased 3.4% overall — more than twice the national increase, which was 1.6%.

“Deaths due to drunk driving are on the rise in California, and as your district attorney I will never apologize for protecting families traveling on our roads by aggressively and fairly prosecuting those accused of drunk driving who put everyone on the roads at high risk,” Dow said in the statement. “Far too many people die on our San Luis Obispo County roads due to this completely preventable crime of drunk driving.”

How to get help

If you or someone you know are a survivor of domestic violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. The hotline offers a range of free services including confidential support from a trained staff member, help finding a local health facility, legal and medical advice and referrals for long-term support.

Survivor support and resources are also available through Lumina Alliance at luminaalliance.org or their Crisis and Information Line at 805-545-8888.