{"id":121710,"date":"2026-02-24T01:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/121710\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:06:07","slug":"prosecutor-and-defense-attorney-weigh-in-on-pennsylvanias-new-dui-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/121710\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor and defense attorney weigh in on Pennsylvania’s new DUI law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala sent a letter to local police chiefs alerting them about a change to DUI law<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Previously, the Supreme Court had affirmed that someone who’d completed a diversionary program for a first-time drinking and driving offense and then got caught driving under the influence again would be charged as if it were their first DUI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The legislature came in and said, ‘no, we’re not going to go that way,'” Zappala said.<\/p>\n

The new offense created by lawmakers is DUI following diversion. Effective last December, anyone who gets accused of a DUI within 10 years of completing a diversionary program will now be treated as a repeat offender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This might be challengeable under cruel and unusual punishment,” said defense attorney Phil DiLucente.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“ARD, always, since the beginning of time, was for a clean slate,” DiLucente said. “Now, those persons won’t have technically a clean slate, because that additional DUI, if it’s within 10 years, or if it’s following 10 years, they can now consider that a second DUI.”<\/p>\n

A first-time DUI, even in the diversion program, will cost someone $1,000 in fines and $1,800 in fees. But the second time someone’s caught driving drunk, they’re going to pay more than $5,000. And there’s mandatory minimum jail time, at least five days, all the way up to six months.<\/p>\n

“First time DUI, second time DUI, third time DUI,” DiLucente said. “This is a game-changer. Get a lawyer. There are ramifications that are not only punitive in nature but also financial.”<\/p>\n

Zappala says the whole point of a diversion program is to help someone address the issue that led to getting behind the wheel drunk or high on prescription drugs.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want you to come back in the system,” Zappala said. “If there’s a problem that brought you into the system in the first place, let’s fix it. Let’s work together. I mean, there are a lot of people that want to help, and we try to bring all those assets to bear.”<\/p>\n

DiLucente says the change in the law means prosecutors don’t have as much leeway to work with defendants.<\/p>\n

“Now we have a situation where it’s still at the discretion of the district attorneys in the various counties for ARD,” DiLucente said. “However, it is not anymore when it is a potential repeat offender.”\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just want to make sure the public’s aware this is the law,” Zappala said. “This is how they’ve told me to apply it. This is how I have to apply it.”<\/p>\n

Zapalla says if you drive drunk and hurt or kill someone, there’s not much anyone in the system can do for you.<\/p>\n

“You’re probably going to go to prison,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he says the change in the law may not be making people much safer.<\/p>\n

“Are you really helping the people who are subsequent offenders? If you got a problem, man, you got to address it.”<\/p>\n

“Please don’t drink and drive. It’s expensive, very expensive,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala sent a letter to local police chiefs alerting them about a change…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18837,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-121710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-dui","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}