Criminal defense attorney gets jail time in DUI crash

A Las Vegas criminal defense attorney twice arrested on DUI charges in 2021 was sentenced Wednesday to probation and six months in jail.

Brian Smith, 67, was first arrested in June 2021 after crashing into a woman’s vehicle at West Warm Springs and South Cimarron roads, court records show. The woman, Erin Moltzen, previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash, was unable to work and had difficulties walking.

On Wednesday, District Judge Ronald Israel sentenced Smith to three years of probation. As a special condition of probation, he was also sentenced to six months in jail, said his defense attorney, Gabriel Grasso. If he fails probation, he will have to serve two to six years in prison.

Grasso declined to comment further on the case on Thursday.

Smith, who has been licensed to practice law in Nevada since 2008, pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of reckless driving, court records show. He had previously pleaded guilty in Las Vegas Justice Court to a misdemeanor DUI charge in connection with the crash.

He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday, jail records show.

According to a police report, Smith’s breath smelled of alcohol at the crash scene and he could not keep his balance during field sobriety tests. He told police he had a glass of wine at the Born and Raised Bar, at 7260 S. Cimarron Road, and as he was driving away, his foot slipped off the brake pedal and slammed onto the accelerator, the report said.

Grasso wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Smith’s blood alcohol level was 0.082, just above the legal limit of 0.08 in Nevada. Smith was also driving a new vehicle,and had taken his prescribed Valium for an existing health issue.

“His blood alcohol level in this case was for all intents and purposes at the legal limit,” Grasso wrote in the memo. “Alcohol has never been an issue with Smith, as can be verified by his years of effective and sober work as a criminal defense lawyer in Clark County.”

Two months after the crash involving Moltzen, Smith was pulled over and arrested again after police said he was driving erratically with an expired tag and flat tire, court records show. In December, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor DUI charge in his second arrest at the same time he pleaded to the misdemeanor count in connection with the crash, and he was ordered to complete DUI school and community service.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court temporarily suspended Smith from the Nevada State Bar, pending disciplinary proceedings, because of the convictions.

A lawsuit Moltzen filed against Smith following the crash is still active, according to court records.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.