DA’s office receives $490k for DUI prosecutions

Riverside County prosecutors will have more resources to go after drug-impaired drivers, thanks to a $490,280 grant that the Board of Supervisors accepted today on behalf of the District Attorney’s Office.

The California Office of Traffic Safety awarded the D.A.’s office the grant for the benefit of the agency’s DUI Vertical Prosecution Unit.

According to the D.A.’s office, the allocation will specifically pay for a deputy district attorney in the western county region to “(manage) misdemeanor drug-impaired driving cases” from criminal filing to the adjudication phase.

The Vertical Prosecution Unit was activated under former D.A. Paul Zellerbach with the goal of reducing “drug-impaired traffic fatalities and injuries by holding drug-impaired drivers accountable,” according to a D.A.’s office statement.

Using the funds, the agency intends to recruit three additional DDAs assigned to prosecute misdemeanor DUI cases.

The grant is required to be expended between now and Sept. 30, 2016.