Calpella Man Found Guilty Of Driving Under The Influence

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations late Friday morning to announce it had found the trial defendant guilty of two substantive charges.

Defendant Skyler Blue Dausman, age 37, of Calpella, was convicted of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor. He was also found guilty of driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol .08 or greater, also a misdemeanor.

A separate special allegation alleging that the defendant’s blood alcohol was .15 or great was found not true.

In brief, the evidence presented at trial was that the defendant was driving a motorcycle in the Calpella-Redwood Valley area on the night of April 16, 2020.

A citizen called 9-1-1 and reported that a motorcycle was driving at a high rate of speed without its lights on. The CHP eventually found a motorcycle at Little Baker’s Market in Redwood Valley that fit the description given by the reporting party. When the driver was contacted, he also fit the description given for the motorcycle driver.

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Upon contact, the investigating officer believed the defendant had been drinking and was under the influence of alcohol. Field sobriety tests at the scene confirmed to the officer that the motorcycle driver was under the influence. Later breath tests provided blood alcohol results of .23/.24.

The defendant’s defense at trial was that he had NOT been drinking BEFORE driving; rather, he began drinking 190 proof Everclear that a friend shared with him in the strip mall parking lot AFTER he arrived in Redwood Valley … during the ten minutes of time it took the CHP to find him, thus, according to the defense argument, this drinking pattern accounted for the high blood alcohol results.

The “friend” with no last name or address who supposedly provided the Everclear was not called as a witness at trial by the defense.

Personnel from the California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Justice’s forensic laboratory appeared as witnesses for the prosecution during the course of the jury trial.

The attorney who presented the case to the jury was Deputy District Attorney Kassandra Long.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Victoria Shanahan presided over the four-day trial.