BRIEFLY IN PUBLIC SAFETY

DUI checkpoint set for tonight in Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa police will conduct a sobriety checkpoint from 6 to 11 p.m. today at Santa Ana Avenue and East 18th Street. Police hold the checkpoint to educate the public “about the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol,” according to authorities.

“A death at the hands of an impaired driver is so tragic because it’s easily preventable”, said Lt. David Andersen of the Costa Mesa Police Department’s Traffic Safety Bureau in a news release.

According to police, 1,074 drivers in 2006 were removed from highways in Costa Mesa for suspicion of driving under the influence. The most recent statistics from Mothers Against Drunk Driving indicate that driving under the influence kills someone every 30 minutes, police said.

MADD volunteers often help at checkpoints, police said. The organization also provides a crashed car on a trailer that is displayed at checkpoints as a reminder of what can happen to intoxicated drivers, police said. Along with the crashed car from a local fatal collision, the trailer shows photos of the accident scene and gives a narrative of the event, police said.

Funding for the program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to police.

Sexual assault suspect is accused of rape

Orange County prosecutors have charged a Lake Forest man with sexually assaulting three women at their homes, one who lived in Newport Beach at the time, another whom he met at a bar in Huntington Beach, the third whom he allegedly raped while out on bail from the first two crimes, prosecutors said.

Sekayi Rudo White, 29, met the three women at bars in Orange County, prosecutors said. The third woman he met Sunday at Patsy’s Irish Pub in Lake Forest, authorities said.

The third woman saw White outside the door of her apartment, and, remembering him from the bar, let him in the house, authorities said. The woman passed out once he entered, apparently intoxicated, according to prosecutors. Later she awoke naked in her bed, prosecutors said.

White met his first accuser in December 2005 at the Fox Sports Grill in Irvine, authorities said. He drove that woman home because she had been drinking, authorities said. White reportedly asked to use the woman’s bathroom, prosecutors said. Once inside the home he ran out of the bathroom naked, chasing the woman and throwing her to the ground, according to prosecutors.

He is charged with sexual battery by restraint, felony assault with the intent to commit rape, and felony criminal threats, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors added an enhancement to the charges because of the accusations against White while he was while out on $250,000 bail. The bail was for the charges related to the first two alleged assaults, prosecutors said.

White was being held without bail and was scheduled to be arraigned Friday at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, authorities said.