You knew this would happen. Everyone knew this would happen. After the smoke cleared from Nevada’s historic debut of recreational cannabis dispensaries all over the state, the hypocrisy of the state’s draconian marijuana “per se” (driving under the influence) laws remained. Sure you could buy a jar of flower, carry a pre-roll of your favorite indica pretty much anywhere with you if you wanted, and contribute to the tens of millions of dollars in revenue from Nevada’s legal marijuana haul. District Attorney Steve Wolfson put out the word, just one week after Nevada’s vote in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, that his office would no longer prosecute possession by adults 21 and older of less than one ounce of cannabis.

Respect. Much respect for what at the time was a bold, bold move.

Six months later billboards for dispensaries popped up across the valley. It was official. Nevada was cannabis friendly. Except, there were no billboards warning about those “other” laws. The really scary, life changing ones. The “per se” laws that result in making a lot of Nevadans criminals the next time they get behind the wheel of a car. The stone-cold truth is, if you smoke a joint in Nevada you can’t legally drive a car for weeks. It has nothing to do with you being impaired. Just the “per se” law, son, just the law.

Jeff Krajnak found out the hard way when a police SWAT team came banging on his door shortly after noon on May 31, 2017, Krajnak says he was home alone when the knock came at his door.

“It was 10:30 a.m., they came to the door with a full SWAT team with tactical gear and auto weapons,” he said. “They grabbed me and slammed me against the wall.”

The entire episode was captured on the family’s video home security system.

“I told them, ‘I have video cameras,’ and they backed off a little bit.”

If there is one saving grace, Krajnak says, it was that his twins were at school.

“They handcuffed me, drove to jail.”

Later, Krajnak’s wife Shellie-Ann came home to an empty house. She figured it out when she reviewed the home security video. “She called a lawyer right away. She was upset because she saw video footage. I wasn’t resisting. I have no criminal background whatsoever.”

Once he had a lawyer the news in jail just kept getting worse. He was being charged with felony DUI death and felony child endangerment. The victim’s family wanted life in prison. Worse, there was a strong possibility Nevada’s per se laws could give them the lion’s share of what they wanted.

Krajnak’s life, his daily connection to his wife, the twins and his job would change. He would spend the next six months in jail awaiting trial because he was unable to raise the $250,000 bail that had been set in his case.

“It was an eye-opener for sure,” he said. “Being a combat vet, I handled the worst of the worst. I had to treat them better than I got treated in jail. I was just shocked by the whole thing. I wasn’t impaired and I value my children so much.”

Now you know this is going to get straightened out because Krajnak hadn’t smoked since the night before the crash, which occurred April 29, 2017, on Boulder Highway at U.S. 95. By his estimate it had been 20 hours. It doesn’t get straightened out. It only gets worse.

Krajnak readily admits he smoked a joint of medical marijuana. The former E6 petty officer 1st class Seabee team member, who served America in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffered a traumatic brain injury from an improvised explosive device that disabled him and ended his 15-year military career. He moved his family to Nevada. He had a doctor’s medical marijuana card.

“The reason for the medical card was PTSD, sleep anxiety. I was on 11 pills from [the] VA before medical marijuana. Using medical [marijuana] I dropped down to two pills. It promoted way better sleep.” Krajnak said. “The 11 pills — I felt like a zombie half the day. I had to drink three energy drinks just to move. I felt very numb in [the] morning. With medical marijuana I was up and at ’em, ready to go for the day.”

It is a cycle that many veterans report. VA doctors prescribe drugs that leave them depressed and listless. They say marijuana allows them to break that cycle of taking powerful narcotics.

“I believe medical marijuana saved my life,” Krajnak said. “I was drinking a lot because of the PTSD, then I found medical marijuana, I smoked in the evening, calmed me down, helped get good night’s sleep. I medicated after kids were asleep.”

When Krajnak found medical marijuana, he quit those high-octane but perfectly legal prescription drugs, and when he quit the lights came back on.

Twenty hours after he last smoked, Krajnak says, he got up and fed their 7-year-old twins. Then he and his son were off to enjoy a father and son day. They spent the morning at the fossil farm at Shadow Ridge High School.

“My son’s a dinosaur buff.”

What’s better than dinosaur bones to a 7-year-old? Next stop McDonald’s, then off to T-ball.

Crossing town, they exited the U.S. 95 at Boulder Highway near Boulder Station and turned left to travel south toward Henderson where the family lives. Krajnak says he took the exit in the far-right lane where a truck was waiting at the light but he moved to the center lane under the bridge. He says the light turned green and when he entered the intersection, he slammed into a car that Krajnak says had run the light. There were witnesses. It was a split decision according to Krajnak. One witness said Krajnak ran the red. Two said he didn’t run the red light. Those two witnesses said the other car ran the red light.

Those witnesses told Highway Patrol officials Jeff was in the right: “The Nissan went through the intersection fast and the Nissan was ’T-boned’ by a black jeep (Krajnak’s car). The witness stated from their point of view it looked like the Nissan (the deceased’s car) ran the red light.”

The one prosecution witness who claimed Krajnak ran the light readily admitted he was intently watching Krajnak approach the intersection — in his rearview mirror — which raises the question of how he could watch the light and Krajnak at the same time.

However, there was one witness who watched the other car speed to the intersection. Lucvininda Stephenson testified at Krajnak’s preliminary hearing that she watched the accident with an unobstructed view of the intersection.

“Our light turned green (if Stephenson is correct, Krajnak’s light would have turned green at the same time) …and then I said to my husband, I said, ‘Oh, my God. He ran.’”

She wasn’t talking about Krajnak, who was charged with running the red light. She was referring to the other car, the grey Nissan.

So, think about that. A person with a panoramic view of the entire intersection remarks about what she saw at that second. The other guy. The other guy was running the light.

Additionally, her husband, Lee Stephenson, an Air Force and airline pilot, testified he saw the Nissan just prior to collision. “It appeared to be going faster than I would have expected for someone exiting the freeway.”

It doesn’t matter because this is about marijuana and Nevada’s per se law.

Krajnak said: “I was questioned in more detail by (Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper) Guy Liedkie. He gave me three field sobriety tests. I passed all three with no signs of impairment.”

NHP Trooper Liedkie, in securing a search warrant for a blood draw that Krajnak had voluntarily agreed to, would tell Judge Karen Bennett-Haron, “I performed horizontal gaze nystagmus test on him, lack of convergence test and the modified Romberg Balance Test. I did not see any clues on any of those tests. Again, with marijuana it is still possible that he may be under the influence.” Later Liedkie would add, “I did not see any indicators of impairment on the test.”

The other driver, Peter Anthony Napoli, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was taken by ambulance to Sunrise Hospital. Krajnak and his son were also transported. At Sunrise Jeff Krajnak got the news: Napoli, the driver of the other car, had died.

Krajnak said, “I broke down, I cried, I felt horrible somebody lost their life. My eyes were red from crying — that became the probable cause to take my blood.” That blood became the basis of charges that could send him to prison for decades.

“Thirty-two days later a SWAT team came to my house and arrested me.”

In addition to being charged with driving under the influence resulting in death and failure to obey a traffic signal, the district attorney’s office charged Krajnak with child endangerment for smoking pot 20 hours before driving with his son in the car.

The basis for the arrest, Krajnak’s blood exceeded Nevada’s per se law that basically states that a driver is impaired if they have more than two nanograms of marijuana Delta-9-THC or five nanograms per ml of marijuana metabolite (11-OH-tetrahydrocannabinol) in their bloodstream. Make no mistake about it, the metabolite has no impact on your driving whatsoever. No one claims it does. No competent law enforcement official is going to stand in front of the court and claim the marijuana metabolite is going to impair your ability to drive.

But this isn’t about impairment. It’s about proof that you smoked or ingested marijuana, where recreational marijuana is legal.

You knew this would happen. Everyone knew this would happen.

After the SWAT raid, Jeff went to jail. Jeff stayed in jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. He stayed for six months. He and his family scraped together $8,500 for an attorney.

At preliminary hearing the incongruities of Nevada’s per se law were laid bare. Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles Martinovsky argued, “It’s just he’s impaired. And I’m arguing that he’s per se impaired. But under the first count, he’s not actually impaired. But under the child abuse section he’s impaired if he’s over the legal limit.”

Krajnak’s attorney, Benjamin Durham, responded, “Your Honor, I disagree. The per se impaired limit does not make somebody impaired. This is an obvious case where he was above the limit and he was clearly not impaired.

“And I would submit to the court that if I had a hundred scientists come in here and testify they would testify that four nanograms of marijuana is not enough to impair anybody. … He wasn’t impaired in this case. He wasn’t under the influence of anything. And that’s the predicate act for the child abuse statute.”

Krajnak was bound over on all three charges. After legal work for his preliminary hearing and requests for bail reduction, (Judge Carolyn Ellsworth eventually released Krajnak on $20,000 bail) the Krajnaks had burned through savings. His only choice after six months in jail was a public defender and a plea deal. Trials aren’t for middle class people of modest means. A couple raising twins on a veteran’s disability check and a wife’s modest income aren’t taking anything to trial.

Of the long wait for sentencing Krajnak says, “It’s a roller coaster, some days are good some are not. I refuse to get on opiates again. My public defender Bernard Little negotiated the plea. He was confident he could beat DUI death, but they would have hammered me on child endangerment and I would probably end up with 16 years.”

Now, it’s like slow motion for Krajnak, who is back at home, back on prescription medication because medical marijuana is legal medicine in Nevada unless you are charged with a crime in Nevada, a crime like being under the influence of medical marijuana.

“I don’t feel I did anything wrong. It was difficult to take a deal. [I took it because] they pulled child neglect charge off. I wanted the Alford clause in my deal.” An Alford plea is an admission that the state could prove its case without the defendant admitting guilt.

Eventually, Krajnak says the weight of the expense wore the family down, saying, “I’m tired of it, my wife is tired of it. If I have to go to prison for a year, it’s just another deployment for her. I’m a prisoner in the Nevada system. I get in a car accident that’s not my fault and now I’m considered a danger to the community and my children. It’s just a hard pill to swallow.

‘I have proof from a forensic investigator. I did not run the red light. Speed [was] not [a] factor. How was this reckless driving?”

No one has decisively proved that Krajnak caused the accident or that he was driving recklessly. The sad truth is that, in Nevada it doesn’t have to be reckless driving. Just getting in an accident days after using legal medical or recreational marijuana in Nevada is reckless driving and that could change your life forever.

Krajnak faces sentencing on September 10, 2018. We will be updating his case on the Vegas Legal Podcast which is available on Stitcher, Facebook and iTunes and in the Fall issue of Vegas Legal Magazine.