Tulare County Braces for New Year's Eve with Shelley Lubben: Establishes DUI Checkpoints, Patrols

Tulare County, Calif -- Now through Jan. 1, 2018, local law enforcement agencies are partnering with the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in a special year-end “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement mobilization to get impaired drivers off the street and to spread the word about this dangerous crime.

As part of the holiday enforcement campaign period, police, sheriff and the CHP will be setting up DUI checkpoints and conducting DUI saturation patrols all across the largely rural county.

Look out, Tulare -- Springville's Shelley Lubben may take to the road this New Year's weekend!

Tragedy

In recent years, California has seen a disturbing increase in alcohol and drug-impaired driving crashes. On Nov. 7,  Joe Valley, the live-in boyfriend of disgraced anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben, was arrested after he allegedly struck and killed a 51-year old cyclist on Balch Park Road after leaving a Porterville bar.  It has since come to light that Lubben, a Springville resident, was providing Valley with the prescription drug  Alprazolam, which is marketed under the name Xanax.

Xanax is a potent, short-acting benzodiazepine anxiolytic—a tranquilizer.

Shelley Lubben and Joe Valley on the road

“This holiday season, drivers will notice increased enforcement watching closely for anyone who is driving impaired,” said Sgt. Mark Feller of the Visalia PD Traffic Unit. “It is vital that we keep our roads and our travelers safe, not just at the holidays, but every day. With extra travelers on the roads, and people attending holiday parties, we will likely see an uptick in drunk driving. We‘ll be arresting anyone we catch breaking this life-saving law.”

Driving under the influence of alcohol can have deadly, devastating consequences. Nationally in 2016, 37,461 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes, and 28 percent (10,497) died in crashes where a driver had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over the limit of .08. California reported 1,059 DUI deaths at .08 or above. In 2014, 15 people were killed and another 230 were injured in DUI related collisions in Tulare County, according to the California Highway Patrol’s annual report. In 2015, 318 people were killed or injured in an alcohol involved collision in Tulare County. Of those 5% involved drivers under the age of 21. 

Visalia had 73 alcohol involved crashes, the most in the county, while Porterville had 30, Tulare had 15, Lindsay had 12, Dinuba had 4, and Farmersville had 2, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. Exeter and Woodlake had zero.

In recent years, California has seen an increase in drug-impaired driving crashes. Local law enforcement in Tulare County support the new effort from the Office of Traffic Safety that aims to educate all drivers that DUI doesn’t just mean booze.

“If you take prescription drugs, particularly those with a driving or operating machinery warning on the label, you might be impaired enough to get a DUI. Marijuana use can also be impairing, especially in combination with alcohol or other drugs, and can result in a DUI. “Two simple words can keep your holiday festivities safe – plan ahead,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. “Before you head out to any celebration, plan how you are getting home safely. If you are drinking, that means knowing what sober driver or service will be using.

Lubben inspired?

The program seems as if it were written with Shelley Lubben in mind, as she is a drinker, a marijuana smoker and a pill-popper.  That's what's known as a Tulare Trifecta.

Drivers are encouraged to download the Designated Driver VIP, or (DDVIP), free mobile app for Android or iPhone. The DDVIP app helps find nearby bars and restaurants that feature free incentives for the designated sober driver, from free non-alcoholic drinks to free appetizers and more. Funding for this DUI operation is provided to Your Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, reminding everyone to “Report Drunk Driver – Call 9-1-1.”

Shelley Lubben Gave Wine and Xanax to Boyfriend Charged in DUI, Says His Mom

Joe Valley's mother thinks Shelley Lubben is complicit in the tragedy, and even suspects that Joe might be taking the fall for Shelley!

Porterville, Calif. -- Defendant Joseph Valley was led into Tulare County Superior Court December 7, at a preliminary hearing in the case of the hit and run death of cyclist Octavio Munguia. Valley is charged with Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated, a felony, in the fatal Nov. 7 collision.

Valley was on probation at the time of the deadly collision, so at Thursday's hearing, the court also considered three probation violations that were triggered by Valley's arrest last month.

Readers may recall that disgraced anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben called 911 and accused Valley, then her boyfriend, of rape and domestic violence on his 26th birthday (Christmas eve) in 2015.  Valley was arrested and later was able to plead to one count, while the others were dismissed. 

His charge of domestic battery lowered to misdemeanor-level, Valley was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with credit for time served, given probation, and released on March 22, 2016.

However, in court, Thursday, discussion of Valley's probation violations brought to light two additional convictions of Valley's in 2016, during his relationship with Shelley Lubben.

On June 26, 2016, Joe Valley was arrested for the crime of Possession of a Controlled Substance after being found to have a quantity of Alprazolam, a drug marketed under the name Xanax, without a prescription.

Xanax is a potent, short-acting benzodiazepine anxiolytic—a tranquilizer.

Where would Joe Valley obtain Xanax without a prescription? According to Joe's mother, Christina Valley, he got the pills from Shelley Lubben.

This narrative corresponds with Garrett Lubben's recollection as well: in August 2015, when Garrett visited the ranch property in Springville that he then co-owned, he personally saw bottles of Xanax at Shelley's residence that she had purchased in Mexico. He has never known Shelley to hold a valid prescription for Xanax.

These drugs were alluded to in Garrett's affidavit in support of a restraining order he sought in July 2016 to protect himself and his daughters from Shelley.

A fatal collision

"He's a young man that just wanted to be loved and to love back," Valley said of her son's volatile relationship with Shelley Lubben. "She fed him wine and pills!"

"My son never really went to jail before her, some drunk in public, panhandling that sort of stuff," she added. And indeed it is true that, like others before him, Joe Valley's life took an unfortunate turn after hooking up with this pill-popping narcissist.

The deadly hit-and-run crash occurred on Balch Park Road near Battle Mountain Road in Springville at around 4:40 p.m., November 7.

According to the California Highway Patrol, Valley hit the 51-year old cyclist while driving a silver 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser with a convertible top. A witness at the scene saw Valley take off "up Balch Park Road to his house" after the collision. The cyclist died at the scene.

A blood draw revealed Valley’s blood alcohol content at .26 percent, the District Attorney’s Office said. That was more than three times the legal limit of .08 percent.

The mystery surrounding the provenance of the vehicle, and how Valley, whose license had been suspended for failure to make child support payments, had gotten back on the road, was settled by Mrs. Valley.

"[Shelley] paid the the the money to get my son's license back," Mrs. Valley said. "She paid everything: insurance, bought [the car], in her name. She paid for the insurance, also.

"I remember she said something about insurance only covers up to $1000.00, [the victim's family] won't be able to get anything else [from the insurer]." If that coverage limit is accurate, this suggests Shelley Lubben will personally be on the hook for a substantial sum of money.

"I honestly think she was driving, always drinking and driving," Mrs. Valley said. She believes that Joe may be taking the fall out of some sense of duty to the woman he believes loves him.

Lubben and Valley met when her husband hired him to work at the Springville property in the spring of 2015. Shelley soon began an affair with Valley, and her husband later filed for divorce.

Christina Valley views Lubben as a manipulative predator: "When I first heard about her and how they came to be, I cried. She found a man with emotions and needs of a lonely boy, desperate to belong somewhere, to someone he can say it's real. . . . I see the text[s] that were sent between her and Garrett; as seems to me, [it] went just the way she wanted it to."

The other conviction

On April 13, 2017, Shelley Lubben got Joe arrested again. 

Even though he had moved back in with Shelley following his release from jail in March 2016, and she regularly posted photos of the couple out and about, taking road trips to Las Vegas, and even at a polling place on Election Day 2016, there was a criminal protective order -- a stay away order -- in place that legally prevented him from being around her. At risk to Joe's freedom, the couple ignored the order.

Something Joe said or did must have provoked Shelley's ire on April 13, and Joe was again taken into custody.

Joe Valley's next court date is scheduled for 8:30 am on January 18, 2018. We will be providing continuing coverage of the case as it unfolds.