For roughly 80 seniors at Da Vinci Charter Academy, school began Monday not with lectures nor study time, but rather with some life lessons. They got a close look at the harsh realities of the consequences that can arrive from driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
As part of an expedited trial in front of high school students via a relatively new program in the Yolo Superior Court, Tracy Cossu, a 48-year-old Vacaville firefighter and paramedic, was tried, convicted and sentenced on two different misdemeanor counts during a 90-minute trial at the school’s campus on East Eighth Street.
The trial was the third of its kind in roughly two years, with Davis High and Pioneer High in Woodland also hosting such events recently.
On Jan. 9, California Highway Patrol Officer Nick Pascoe responded to a call for a minor collision at 7:47 p.m. near the Mace Boulevard exit off of eastbound Interstate 80.
Cossu, who was on her way to a friend’s 50th birthday party, had rear-ended another car. Neither party was injured.
Pascoe testified that a witness claimed to have seen Cossu’s car swerving in and out of the slow lane and onto the shoulder before the accident occurred. As he approached her vehicle, he said he smelled the odor of alcohol on Cossu’s breath, prompting him to administer a set of standard field-sobriety tests.
“Every contact is a potential DUI assessment contact,” Pascoe testified.
When asked at the scene if she had been drinking, Cossu told Pascoe she had consumed two Coors Light beers roughly three hours before the incident.
But according to Pascoe, Cossu performed poorly in roughly five different sobriety tests, prompting a breathalyzer test in which Cossu registered a 0.127 blood-alcohol content at 8:25 p.m. and a 0.145 BAC two minutes later.
The legal limit is 0.08.
Pascoe, who was certified by the court as an expert witness in diagnosing driving under the influence, explained during the trial that the system allows for a 0.02 percent margin of error on the breathalyzer test, thus explaining the differences in results. He also administered a blood test that turned up consistent results of Cossu’s BAC.
“She was under the influence of alcohol and unable to safely administer a motor vehicle,” Pascoe testified.
When called to the stand by her attorney, Richard Lansburgh, Cossu testified that she had consumed roughly three or four beers rather than the “one or two” she had told Pascoe on the scene.
“I was worried about having alcohol in my system,” she told the court. “I didn’t want to get in trouble.”
As she continued her testimony, her tone became more apologetic and remorseful as the crowd of stunned students looked on.
“I didn’t think that I was impaired,” Cossu said. “I didn’t think I was impaired enough to be arrested. … I was actually shocked. … Due to the alcohol awareness classes (I’ve taken) and the realization that one drink impairs you, it’s absolutely a bad idea to get in a vehicle after drinking.
“I didn’t feel that I was (impaired), but apparently I was.”
After the testimony from Pascoe and Cossu and impassioned closing arguments from prosecutor Matt DeMoura, a graduate of both Davis High and UC Davis, and Lansburgh, it was up to Yolo Superior Court Judge Dave Rosenberg to deliver a verdict. Cossu had waived her right to a jury trial in order to participate in this program.
She was found guilty of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol content of over .08 percent and sentenced to 60 days in jail.
In addition, Rosenberg sentenced Cossu to three years of probation, issued a fine of $1,958, ordered her to enroll in a three-month DUI course and ordered her to install a continuous alcohol monitoring “SCRAM” system on her person that measures her blood-alcohol content at all times.
Rosenberg said if Cossu was convicted of another DUI within 10 years, an even stricter sentence would apply, and even now, she’d be subject to random BAC tests.
“You’ve got to do a lot of things (when you’re driving) and if you are impaired, you don’t do all of those things,” Rosenberg said, before adding that if Cossu had opted for a “traditional” trial, he likely would have sentenced her to six months in jail instead.
According to Lansburgh, Cossu pushed for a trial in front of students so they could learn from her mistakes.
After Cossu was led out of the room in handcuffs by bailiff Evan Alder, Rosenberg, DeMoura, Lansburgh and Pascoe all stayed to answer the students’ questions.
“A lot of people cannot believe that they’re in this predicament,” DeMoura said in response to one such question. “They really do not think they were impaired by two, three, four beers.”
Said Ryan Johnson, 17, “I thought it was interesting how it was very, very easy to be convicted of a DUI and that there is an unusually large sentence that is very typical for a DUI. This women got 60 days for having (four) drinks … and then driving. That was her crime. I thought it was really interesting how sensitive the law was in regards to DUIs. Obviously, that leads me to be more cautious about it.
Added social science teacher Gretchen Conners, who used the trial as part of an entry event for an upcoming judicial system project: “I think the statistics that the district attorney mentioned speak for themselves in the fact that it’s a problem. It can be catastrophic to people’s livelihoods.
“This person we saw today was a firefighter and (she is) going to be serving a two-month sentence based on her actions that night. … Students need to realize the impact of their decisions. I think starting that messaging early, before they’re a legal age to drink, as they’re discovering those parts of life … they need to make responsible decisions in regards to those actions.”
— Reach Evan Ream at eream@davisenterprise.net
