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CCN reporter arrested on DUI charge for .06 blood alcohol level

August 21, 2013
Josh Walsh

Josh Walsh

By JOSH FRIEDMAN and DANIEL BLACKBURN

CalCoastNews reporter and co-founder Karen Velie was taken into custody on Aug. 13 after a San Luis Obispo police officer arrested her on suspicion of driving under the influence. Officer Josh Walsh placed Velie under arrest after her blood alcohol test showed a .06. California’s drunk driving laws require an arrest if a driver has a .08 alcohol level.

The arrest comes during CalCoastNews investigations into activities at CAPSLO, the county’s nonprofit that serves homeless persons as well as wrongdoing over the handling of hazardous wastes.

Walsh said at the time of the arrest that he would have arrested her even if she had a blood alcohol level of as little as .01, Velie said. California law prohibits driving while intoxicated no matter what the blood alcohol level.

At the time of the arrest, Velie had just finished teaching a bridge class at a San Luis Obispo restaurant.

Twenty-four people attended the class, several of whom saw Velie minutes before the traffic stop. After the arrest, Velie spoke to the majority of the class members, all of whom said she was clearly not intoxicated.

“I only saw her have one glass of wine and she looked fine,” said San Luis Obispo attorney Stew Jenkins. “She did not appear to be under the influence at all.”

Medical doctor Gary Foresman agreed.

“I witnessed her. She was coherent,” Foresman said. “She was teaching bridge to myself and my wife and she was unequivocally not drunk when I left that night.”

Foresman left the restaurant shortly before Velie did.

Former San Luis Obispo police officer Mike Brennler said the arrest of Velie was out of the ordinary.

“In my 33-year law enforcement career, the standard procedure was to release someone who submitted to a breath test that demonstrated they were under the state limit,” Brennler said.

“Bookings in such misdemeanor cases were very rare.”

The arrest and its aftermath appeared to be directly connected to the news agency’s recent reporting on county homeless issues. It came following a months-long series of articles by CalCoastNews detailing activities of Dee Torres, CAPSLO homeless services director. Torres is the fiancé of County Supervisor Adam Hill.

Since the arrest, CalCoastNews opponents have used the alleged DUI as the focal point of a smear campaign targeting CalCoastNews and its advertisers.

Hill sent text messages to CalCoastNews advertisers Tuesday morning informing them of Velie’s arrest.

The text message and email campaign targeting advertisers followed directly in the wake of CalCoastNews reporting on a slander suit filed by Torres against Brennler, who is represented by Jenkins.

CalCoastNews reported on Aug. 19 that Brennler had challenged a sworn statement that Torres filed in her suit. Torres was not truthful in her statement, Brennler said. A hearing on a motion to dismiss the suit is scheduled for Thursday morning.

CalCoastNews also recently published text messages sent by Hill to a key witness in the case, in which the supervisor attempted to get the witness to change his story. That story, which appeared on Aug. 16 showed exchanges between Hill and Ralph Almirol, a former boyfriend of Torres. In the texts, Hill tried to get Almirol to withdraw his statement that he and Torres used gift cards that were intended for the homeless for themselves.


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Karen’s named was listed in the SLOPD media logs, which are posted daily on the PD’s Website for the world to see.

It could have been literally anyone that stumbled onto it online and spread the word. All it would take is a single email to the right person and it goes viral.

A DUI is something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. I hope she fights the charges and beats the rap. I heard Sam Blakeslee was at the Bridge Class, nice witness there.

BAL .06 %? You are supposed to walk or allowed to call a friend or a cab and not get arrested, unless she was being a bitch and pissed off the cop, then all bets are off no matter who you are.

As far as these attacks are concerned, I Googled her name and got onto a Website called TOPIX and there are some truly horrible things posted in the San Luis Obispo pages about Dave, Karen and others. Shameful stuff really. Nothing that anyone would EVER say to someone’s face, that’s for sure.

What kind of sick bastards are we dealing with here?

Happiest Place on Earth, yeah right! Never mind the maggots…


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Speaking of some of the things that have been posted on TOPIX. Karen mentioned on the Congalton show yesterday that her youngest daughter died a couple of weeks ago in the hospital. That is something that wasn’t made public and yet, someone started posting about it on TOPIX claiming that Karen killed her own daughter and was a suspect in her death. Hopefully those *sick* posts have been taken down.


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I’m with you, Nancy, about the comments on TOPIX about Karen, simply because they indicate a very sick mind out there following Karen’s life. These comments always start when Adam Hill and Dee Torres are the subject of stories in CCN. Does Adam Hill have a hit squad of sickos at his command?


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I have a feeling that there is one “sicko”, Adam Hill, and many pseudonyms

with which he talks to himself to boost his own ego and impress his girlfriend with how smart he is. It’s now all starting to catch up with him and someday, hopefully in the near future, he will be booted out of office and forced to try and find a new job, where he’s paid what he’s worth. He better hopes they raise the minimum wage.


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There is another sicko out there, Aaron Ochs. His Website, The Rock is also filled with this type of crap, under the guise of “journalism.”

Sometimes I think between sexting, cyber bullying, sites like Yelp, Topix and too many others to count, the Internet will eventually lead to the downfall of civilization.

Something must be done soon to put a stop to all the anonymous libel and slander that is being propigated online.

At the least, the wall between fair comment/opinion and libel/slander needs to be re-examined.Just because someone is a public figure/celebrity, that doesn’t in my opinion give someone the right to slander and lie.

A good start would be that if something posted online is a lie, then the poster can be sued. The truth is an absolutte defense in libel cases and so too a lie should be an automatic guilty.

And the Websites should be compelled to give up the identity of any poster that is being sued for violating this, or they too be held liable.

I think if you got rid of the anonymity aspect of these cyber attacks, it would go a long way toward regaining some civility in our public discourse and in how we treat eachother.

Of course I write this under an assumed screen name, but my reasons are pesonal for not putting my name out there and professional. I also don’t engage in what I would call cyber-slander. I tell the truth, even when giving my personal opinion.

I try never to post anything that I wouldn’t say to someone’s face, perhaps that is a good rule of thumb to employ.

Maybe it could be a start to a more civilized exchange of ideas and information.


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Maybe he’s sicko enough for a squad.


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This directly plays into the silly but often-repeated myth that SLO city has a zero tolerance policy for BAC for all drivers (rather than just those under 21) and will arrest people for having a .01 or greater.


SLOPD Captain Staley directly denied that such a policy existed in this Mustang Daily article:

http://mustangdaily.net/downtown-slo-where-the-party-never-ends/


“Citations for driving under the influence (DUI) are also common, Staley said. But San Luis Obispo’s rumored “zero-tolerance policy” — supposedly putting those 21 and older at the same risk for a DUI as minors — is a myth.

“Lots of rumors get started out there that have no valid basis,” Staley said.

The city enforces the same laws that apply throughout California: 0.08 percent blood alcohol content is the legal limit for those 21 and older, unless the driver shows serious signs of being impaired.”


So Officer Walsh will have to prove that Velie was “seriously impaired” despite having half the requisite BAC. Does anyone know what pretext Walsh used to pull Velie over?


Note that when most off duty law enforcement officers are pulled over, they refuse to take a breathalyzer and demand a blood draw because 1) it’s more accurate and 2) it gives you additional time to sober up and lower your BAC.


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I’m listening to KVEC. Here’s what I’ve heard so far:


– She saw the cop car behind her and then next to her.

– She didn’t know that both lanes turned left.

– She got a phone call and was pulling over to answer it because she was next to a cop.


Sounds like she made an unsafe lane change in front of the cop or exhibited other signs of unsafe driving while being under the influence of alcohol. Moral of the story….don’t drink and drive.


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Sounds like reasonable cause for the traffic stop. Apparent odor of alcohol on the breath. Unsafe driving with an unsafe lane change. Talking on telephone etc.

It will be interesting to read the report and see how the field sobriety test went and if the dash camera was functioning, which at times seem to have operational problems in SLO.

Some questions might be if any drugs may have been involved, prescription or non-prescription which may account for the low Breathalyzer test.

CCN usually shows a booking photo of the violator which at times is somewhat informative as to the physical condition of the violator.

I hope that CCN will post the arrest report as it is readily available to Ms. Vellie.

When all of the evidence is made available at that time we can consider the facts.


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Doctor Holly, What drugs are you refering to? Some drugs account for false positives but that’s not where you were going.


Sounds like you made up your mind allready.


“When all of the evidence is made available at that time we can consider the facts.” No, a judge will take care of that.


Please link to other publication’s articles in slo that post the arrest reports of arrestees.


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Please read my comments. Prescription or non prescription? The combination of either may lead to a low BA but impair one’s ability to drive.

“We can consider the facts”. There are those who are judging the case on this blog without knowing all of the facts. The facts will give everyone the ability to render there opinion.

I would suppose if this goes to court, and I don’t think it will, that a jury will judge the case by her who peers who for the most part are people like us and a judge.

I think that you have already passed judgement and certainly without knowing all of the facts or having any expertise in determining the impairment of Ms. Vellie at the time of her arrest not knowing what the report may reveal.

Years ago Ms. Vellie encountered problems in Atascadero with an alcohol related incident.


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Right so you go on about “facts” but bring up an vague “incident”.


It’s called casting aspersions, a form of ad hominem.


Gary Foresman is my doc, he has my trust.


2/10


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You’re reaching Mr. Holly.


As for the police report, they always trump up those reports. I say the video is what will reveal the facts, to hell with the report apart from the breathalyzer test and we already know what that revealed.


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She stated on the radio that she failed one of the sobriety tests.


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There were no drugs involved. Velie doesn’t take any drugs, prescriptions or other wise. She failed the part of the test that requires a person to stand on one leg for 60 (or whatever) seconds. Many sober people can’t stand on one leg for the required time during that test.


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She stated she could only stand for 5 seconds.


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Wow. You know what prescription drugs she takes (or doesn’t take.) You must have a pretty close relationship.


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Seeing as how it is not common practice to inform the arrestee of which tests they’ve passed or failed, I’m curious as to how Karen knows specifically that she failed one particular aspect…


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The test instructions probably were something like “stand one one foot…..and count to 10”. If you can only make it to “5” like she stated on the radio, you don’t need someone telling you that you failed that test.


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My question is in regard to the other tests; there’s no way she subjectively knows that she failed ONLY that one.


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QUOTING MR. HOLLY: “It will be interesting to read the report and see how the field sobriety test went and if the dash camera was functioning, which at times seem to have operational problems in SLO.”


Dang. I wish I knew what the emoticon for “raised eyebrows” is.


Now THAT would be an interesting research project….how often do the SLO dash cams “not function,” and under what circumstances.


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Don’t make me get out my “Aesop’s.”


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“Half” the requisite BAC? In what state is the legal limit .12?


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I unfortunately was pulled over by SLO police in the mid 90’s for a dui after leaving a bbq where I had drunk one coffee mug of beer. My boyfriend was wasted. I was a .06 when the legal limit was still 1 and still got arrested and thrown in the holding tank overnight. I of course got off (driving in bike lane for too long, whatever! while they let my drunk boyfriend drive my car home even when he was yelling out the window in a slurred speech to leave me alone, he was the drunk one!). My point is, maybe not conspiracy theory. Just an anal police officer like the guy who ticketed me for technically not having my seltbelt on when I was pulling out of a business driveway while putting it on!


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Happiest city in America? Maybe we should ask Oprah and whatshername back for a follow-up. I am officially sickened to my stomach and if I were Dave Congalton I’d be looking over my shoulder.


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and what happened in Costa Mesa a few years ago? it’s still in the news but same m.o.


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Where’s the dashcam video of the stop? Also would be nice to see one of the emails Hill sent to advertisers.


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Agreed.

Seems odd that Supervisor Hill has time to be texting private businesses about this matter; doesn’t he have more important things to do–like serve the public? Like manage the water crisis? This is looking more like a personal vendetta of Adam Hill vs. CCN. I hope he & Gibson do not win re-election. SLO County residents deserve better.


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Odd? Sure is, he has been doing it for years from his county desk.


“like a personal vendetta of Adam Hill vs. CCN” Yes and he is dooming his realection by his own hand.


Something about digging holes…….


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Let him keep digging


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Good lord. They STILL haven’t taken away Hill’s texting capabilities?


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As with several other times where the actions of the local police was in question the dashcam will likely have had either a technical issue, malfunction, or other situation making it unavailable.


Convenient isn’t it.


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That ‘bridge’ is a dangerous sport.


Gotta know…were the players fully clothed, or like the people shown in the advert that was displayed here ?


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It was a restaurant so shirts are required.


Perhaps there is a underground game somewhere ;)


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“It was a restaurant so shirts are required.’


Well, THAT’s a relief !


Seeing all those middle-aged, purportedly happy SLOvian bridge enthusiasts in their skivvies would have been mighty disconcerting to one of my cloistered religious training.


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Good luck on finding a local underground bridge.


I’m still trying to find an underground Jane Austen Club.


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Karen will tell her story today (Wednesday) at 3:05 p.m. on News/Talk 920 KVEC.


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