Donations of Blood in Lieu of Driver Fines Halted

LAGUNA HILLS — The presiding judge of Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel ordered a traffic commissioner Friday to stop offering errant motorists the option of donating blood to local blood banks instead of paying $50 fines.

Presiding Judge Wendy Lindley said she had ordered an investigation into Traffic Commissioner Matt Flynn and the plan he initiated Monday that prompted, by his estimate, 50 to 100 people donating blood to the American Red Cross as punishment for traffic offenses.

“I talked with Commissioner Flynn and told him, ‘I think it’s a very creative idea,’ and that his intentions were good, but it’s something he’s not to continue to do,” Lindley said Friday, interrupting her vacation to address the problem.

Lindley’s order came on the same day that American Red Cross officials contacted Flynn and asked him to stop offering drivers a chance to pay their fines in blood.

Judy Iannaccone, the spokeswoman for the local chapter of the American Red Cross, said the American Blood Bank Assn., which has jurisdiction over the nation’s blood banks, prohibits the act of citizens giving blood as a method of paying fines or reducing sentences meted out in court--any court.

“We didn’t talk to [Flynn] before he made that decision,” Iannaccone said. “Had we done so, we could have told him not to do it. Believe it or not, this situation has popped up before, elsewhere in the United States, which is why we carry specific rules against it.”

She said the blood bank insists on entirely voluntary donations because people wishing to avoid fines might shade the truth about their medical history when asked to complete the blood bank’s questionnaire.

“When you’re dealing with HIV and the AIDS risk,” she said, “people could be in a window period, and we need them to be totally honest. This is to assure that the blood supply available for the community is as safe as it medically can be.”

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Flynn, who works in Traffic Court in Laguna Hills, said he got the idea for blood donations while driving to work Monday morning. He heard over his car radio that the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross was suffering a drop in blood donations that usually follows the holidays.

Flynn said Friday that at first he had hoped to make arrangements with the UC Irvine Blood Bank, after the Red Cross said it did not want the blood.

But several hours later, Dr. Jose Ocariz, the top executive at UCI Blood Bank, said his facility also would not accept such donors. Then Lindley got involved, putting a stop to any arrangement with any blood bank.

Asked if Flynn would face censure, Lindley said: “I need to know a lot more about what went on. I’m in the earliest stages of an investigation. To me, this is of great concern, since we have a problem in the United States with keeping our blood banks pure.”

As for Flynn, “I guess not everybody has that kind of knowledge,” Lindley said.

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Iannaccone of the Red Cross said residents need not worry about the 50 to 100 people who Flynn says took advantage of the blood-giving alternative before it ended Friday.

“We thoroughly test every unit of blood given anyway,” Iannaccone said, “so the public can be reassured.”

Iannaccone said Red Cross officials had not determined if the 50 or so people who made donations earlier in the week were part of Flynn’s program. The traffic commissioner had required them to return to Traffic Court with a receipt that the Red Cross gives all blood donors.