Guilty verdict in DUI trial

March 12, 2006

MARY AMES/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A Butte man arrested in the wee hours of July 17 after he drove away from the Palmer Bar with a bit of pot in his pocket and an unloaded .44-caliber Marlin rifle in his Subaru sat quietly through his jury trial - and subsequent conviction - this week before Superior Court Judge Eric Smith.

Allen Gregory Lau, 51, was charged with felony driving under the influence, felony refusal, driving with a suspended license, fourth-degree misconduct involving weapons and sixth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance after Palmer Police Officer Kelley Turney stopped him about 5 a.m. for driving away without his headlights on.

Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Powell played a video tape of Lau's arrest and poor performance on his field sobriety tests. She played audio tapes from Turney and Alaska State Trooper Mark Hendrickson, as they readied a Datamaster, a machine used to take breath samples that are admissible as evidence in court.

Turney asked Lau several times if he would give a breath sample. Lau, on tape, said, &#8220No,” clearly, once. For the rest of the tape, he complained the handcuffs were too tight and said he didn't understand what the cops were asking.

&#8220I want a witness right now,” Lau said on tape. &#8220You put me in this position. I don't like the position you put me in.”

Hendrickson testified that Turney checked the handcuffs to make sure they were not too tight by putting his index finger between the cuffs and Lau's wrists. Hendrickson said he offered to call a lawyer, or anyone else Lau wished to talk to, explaining that a phone in the Datamaster room is equipped with a headset so a suspect can speak on the phone after an officer places a call.

&#8220I'd classify him as acting belligerent,” Hendrickson said. &#8220He asked for an attorney and I was doing everything I could to help him.”

Lau's public defender, Lisa Valenta, cross examined Hendrickson, asking him if Lau's actions could be characterized as those of a person who felt he'd been wronged.

&#8220A lot of people I arrest for DUI feel they've been wronged, but that they've done nothing wrong,” Hendrickson said. &#8220So they're angry at me.”

Lau repeated several times that the handcuffs were painful and uncomfortable, an issue the jury wanted settled. One of the jurors sent a question to the judge, asking the diameter of the wrist openings.

Powell volunteered to let Turney handcuff her with her hands behind her back, just as Lau's had been, and showed the jury how they fit on her wrists before Turney removed the cuffs.

&#8220That was the first time I got to handcuff an attorney,” Turney said. &#8220That was kind of fun.”

Valenta maintained the cops had an agenda - that Lau was wrongly accused and agitated because for a tall man his age, the back of a patrol car is a torture chamber.

&#8220What we see in the tape is an older gentleman who went to the bar to dance all night after a hard week at work,” Valenta said.

Powell argued the officer did nothing wrong.

&#8220We're here because Mr. Lau decided to go to a bar and drink all night, and then drive home,” Powell said.

After several hours of deliberation, the jury found Lau guilty on all counts except one. On the misconduct involving weapons charge, jurors told the court, they would continue to disagree.

To be charged with a felony DUI, a person has to have been convicted of two DUI charges within the previous 10 years. Court records show prior convictions for Lau in Anchorage in October 1996 and February 1997.

Lau's was Palmer's first felony DUI trial of the year, according to Powell.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.