Richard Chae
A Palo Alto patent attorney with two DUI convictions under his belt was found guilty of bribery Thursday for trying to get out of a drunken-driving arrest in Colma by bribing police, prosecutors said.
Richard Chae, now 39, was driving his Lexus about 2:40 a.m. Feb. 26, 2010, when he was pulled over by Colma police on the 400 block of Serramonte Boulevard, said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County district attorney.
The officers suspected Chae was drunk, Wagstaffe said. Chae allegedly offered them the $900 he said he had in his pocket if “this could all go away.”
The officers declined, so Chae upped the ante, offering $5,000 and then $35,000, Wagstaffe said.
It didn’t work. Police arrested him on suspicion of bribery and drunken driving. When they searched him, officers found $1,055 in cash and $135 in chips from the Lucky Chances casino in Colma, authorities said.
Tests showed that his blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent, above the legal limit for driving of 0.08 percent, Wagstaffe said.
Chae was convicted of misdemeanor drunken driving in November, but the jury deadlocked on the bribery count. After a retrial, a new jury convicted him of that Thursday.
Chae attended MIT and Boston University School of Law before he was admitted to the California State Bar in 2003, records show. He is to be sentenced Aug. 24.
via Lawyer convicted of trying to bribe way out of DUI – SFGate.
