County 2nd Toughest on Drunk Drivers : Law enforcement: A state study shows that only one other metropolitan area had a higher conviction rate.

Ventura County has the second-highest conviction rate for drunk driving among the state’s major metropolitan areas, according to a new study by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Ventura County also had the lowest rate of reducing drunk-driving charges to reckless driving, according to the preliminary report based on 1989 arrest statistics.

“Ventura County is often used as a model county,” said Raymond C. Peck, director of research and development for the DMV. “They tend to give pretty tough sanctions to offenders, and they’ve got a very good coordination between the police, the prosecutors, the judges and the treatment providers.”

In Ventura County, 78.7% of the 7,606 people arrested in 1989 on suspicion of driving under the influence were convicted, according to the study, released last week. Of the state’s larger counties, only Kern County had a higher conviction rate.

Kern County, with a population of 543,477, convicted 79.9% of the 9,893 people arrested for driving under the influence during 1989.

The high conviction rates in Ventura and Kern counties compare with a statewide conviction average of 64.2%. Los Angeles County had a conviction rate of 59.5%; Orange County, 70.9%, and Santa Barbara County, 70.7%.

Conviction rates ranged from 27.8% in Sierra County to 90.1% in Mariposa County. Other sparsely populated rural counties with smaller populations also had high conviction rates. Kings County, with a population of 101,469, had a rate of 79.8%; Mendocino, with a population of 80,345, 83.0%, and Tehama, with a population of 49,625, 79.9%.

Authorities attributed the high conviction rates to good working relationships between police and prosecutors and a firm stance that drinking and driving is a serious crime.

“It’s no longer socially acceptable to be the jolly drunk at parties and the guy who says, ‘I can drive. I’ve done it 100 times,’ ” Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said. “Now it’s unacceptable not to have a designated driver, it’s unacceptable to have a party where everybody drinks all night, and it’s unacceptable to allow a friend to drink and drive.”

That attitude has translated to a less tolerant view of the crime among jurors in Kern County, Dist. Atty. Edward R. Jagels said.

“The realization of the tremendous danger of driving under the influence is gradually sinking in,” he said.

Also, Bradbury and Jagels, considered two of the toughest prosecutors in the state, said law enforcement officers in their counties submit complete reports that help get convictions.

California Highway Patrol officers in Ventura County attend seminars by judges and deputy district attorneys on how to prepare cases, Lt. Claud LeMond said.

LeMond also said that any time the district attorney’s office rejects a case submitted by CHP officers, he reviews it to determine whether the officer could be doing a better job.

About 89% of the misdemeanor drunk-driving cases and 80% of the felony cases submitted by the department are filed, LeMond said. That is a dramatic increase from six years ago when only 70% of misdemeanor arrests were filed, and only about 12% of felonies made it through the district attorney’s office, he said.

Bradbury also credited aggressive deputy district attorneys. Bradbury’s office routinely prosecutes cases in which drivers have 0.06% and 0.07% blood-alcohol levels, below the legal limit of 0.08%. And they refuse to plea-bargain in nearly all cases, he said.

In 1989, Ventura County plea-bargained only 0.01% of its arrests to reckless driving, the DMV study said.

In contrast, Kern County plea-bargained 4.7% of its arrests to reckless driving, and Los Angeles entered into plea bargains to reckless driving in 6.2% of its arrests.

The statistics are the first released from a continuing DMV study begun in 1989 to track through the judicial system people arrested for driving under the influence, Peck said. The preliminary report was issued by Peck during a symposium Saturday at UCLA.

There have been delays in receiving some information and complete statistics might increase the number of convictions by an estimated 6%, Peck said. Peck said, however, that he did not believe the increase would change the pattern of the results.

He said he is beginning to tabulate arrests from 1990. A formal presentation of findings will be made in January, 1992, and each year subsequently, he said.

Ultimately, the DMV tracking system will monitor everything from conviction rates on driving under the influence arrests to the average time that it takes to process cases, to the rate of recidivism associated with different punishments, possibly pointing out loopholes in the way arrests and cases are handled.