NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — A judge at the Newport Beach Harbor Justice Center on Tuesday declined to consider the accused’s financial circumstances when evaluating a plea agreement in a misdemeanor DUI case, despite arguments from the defense that the accused had been unemployed for six months and lacked the ability to pay court-imposed fines and fees.
The accused appeared in court for arraignment to enter a plea to two misdemeanor charges. He was charged in Count One with driving under the influence of alcohol and in Count Two with driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or more. The offenses were allegedly committed Jan. 29.
Judge Susan M. Lee presented the plea agreement to the court, offering a reduced sentence and stating that a guilty plea would resolve the case without the need for a trial. In exchange for a guilty plea, the accused would be placed on three years of informal, unsupervised probation, along with mandatory enrollment in court-ordered programs as a condition of the sentence…