Criminal Defense – The Anatomy of a DWI/DUI Arrest
Every DWI arrest has 4 distinct phases: a problem with any of them could result in a drunk driving conviction: traffic stop and questioning; perform all three field sobriety tests; review the DWI questionnaire and offer the person suspected of drunk driving the option of taking the “breath test.” It is vitally important that your DWI criminal defense attorney is skilled at examining all of these 4 components to maximize your chances of avoiding a DWI conviction. So with that said, let’s look at each of these 4 stages and how an experienced DWI attorney can help you with your drunk driving arrest. Successfully challenging the state’s DWI case at any of these stages may justify having the evidence in the case dismissed by the court or, if allowed, justify an acquittal that exonerates you of a drunk driving offense.
DWI traffic stop
Police patrol the highways and gather in parking lots near popular bars to track down suspected drunk drivers. Police cannot just stop or arrest someone walking out of a bar. They must observe them committing a minor traffic violation so that they can begin their drunk driving investigation. It is not unusual for many DWI investigations to start with someone “running the center line” of the roadway or failing to use their turn signal for a routine lane change. Fortunately, many police cars have video cameras that record the events leading up to the traffic stop. A good criminal defense attorney can review the video recording to determine if, in fact, the police officer was able to correctly establish a traffic violation. If the officer is wrong, your criminal defense attorney can file a motion to suppress evidence and argue that your case should be dismissed because the police did not have probable cause to arrest you and also argue that any evidence of your intoxication should be dismissed. be deleted because it is based on an illegal arrest.
Once you are pulled over on the side of the road, the police officer will use the time to investigate and issue a traffic ticket to assess you for drunk driving. You may be ordered to get out of his car so the police officer can watch you get out of the car and walk toward him. He will look to see if he sways as he walks and if he needs to use his car to keep his balance. If either is observed, those are clues that suggest deterioration. Upon contacting you, the police will ask you routine questions about where he is going and if he knows why he stopped you. The police officer will use this as an opportunity to observe his speech to see if it is normal or if he is slurred. They will also check to see if his eyes are bloodshot and if they can smell alcohol on his breath. This is interesting because alcohol doesn’t have a “smell”, many things can lead to “bloodshot eyes”, and some people have speech patterns that can seem “slurred” normally. Again, this is where video is important. A good DWI attorney can begin to question the police officer’s credibility by reviewing the video and questioning his observations of swinging and speaking. Also, a good criminal defense trial attorney can emphasize all the things he has done right to show that he is not incapacitated and should not be suspected of drunk driving.
At this point, if the officer believes you are driving drunk, they will begin a formal investigation and ask you to take all three field sobriety tests.
The 3 DWI Field Sobriety Tests
The officer will ask you to participate in some standard field sobriety tests to determine if you can drive. Both of these tests are designed to fail and are divided attention tests. None of the three tests have scores that correlate with a particular blood alcohol content. In other words, the same tests that were used years ago to determine whether you were drunk when a %BAC of 0.10 was the demarcation line is used today when a %BAC of 0.08% is in the new standard and will be used in years to come when efforts to reduce the presumptive level of intoxication becomes a BAC% of 0.05%. There are 3 standard field sobriety tests: the nystagmus test, the walk and turn test, and the one-legged standing test. Putting your finger up your nose or reciting the alphabet backwards are not standard tests and have no probative value.
Nystagmus tests track the movements of your pupils. This can be called “the pen test”. The officer is watching to see how your pupils track and object and how they act at the point of “maximum deviation” or how far they can follow an object before you need to turn your head. In a normal, sober person, the pupil will move or “follow” the object it is following with no problem and can hold still with maximum deviation. Police are looking to see if the student “jerks” or acts erratically. Horizontal nystagmus will be performed for drunk driving suspects. Only a qualified DWI attorney can tell if this test was done correctly. The police must make as many “passes” with each eye and hold the object at a certain height and distance from the suspected drunk driver. In a perfect world, your criminal defense attorney may criticize the officer’s administration of evidence based on the video. When the video is missing, he can criticize the officer in court by asking how he performs the test and even asking him to demonstrate his technique during cross-examination. There are also known medical conditions that can affect nystagmus. A criminal defense attorney experienced in litigating DWI cases can question the officer about these conditions and present evidence of his affliction at trial. In all probability, the officer did not ask.
The next two tests are split activity tests, meaning they require you to perform a physical activity and at the same time require you to engage in a mental task. Do you remember the child’s game where you walk around, while chewing gum and rubbing your belly? It’s hard to do. These tests are designed to fail. One of the tests is a one leg stand. In this test, you have to lift one leg 6 inches and hold it for a period of time. You may be asked to count. The next test is to walk and turn. In this test, you will walk 9 steps heel to toe for 9 steps, do a regulated turn, and walk backwards for 9 more steps. The police are looking to see if he can follow directions, needs help with balance, and can count while taking the test. These are difficult tests to do sober up and even the police officer will admit that he is trained to do them himself. An experienced DWI attorney can review the video and question the officer to see if the instructions given to the suspected drunk driver were judicial and can examine whether the officer demonstrated the evidence correctly. A good DWI attorney will also be in a position to show the judge what he did correctly on these tests, as well as provide evidence of any physical conditions he may have that make these tests an inaccurate measure of his sobriety.
In all likelihood, anyone stopped on the side of the road will not do well on all three field sobriety tests. At this point, the officer will formally review the DWI questionnaire with you. You’ve probably already been asked many of these questions.
THE DWI Questionnaire
This is a crucial part of the case and can turn a defensible case into a conviction. Make no mistake, this is an interrogation. The officer will ask you questions that will help prove the drunk driving case. He will be asked if he was operating, ie driving, the car. He will ask if he was drinking and, if so, how much and for how long. He will be asked where he comes from and if he has any medical conditions that they should know about. It is not uncommon for drivers who have done well on field sobriety tests to report coming from a bar where they have consumed 4 beers and 2 shots of alcohol. Many clients will say that they were not looked at and informed of their rights beforehand. Unfortunately, the Miranda warnings may not apply at this stage of the investigation. However, a skilled defense attorney can mitigate the damage caused by incriminating responses. This is a very specific analysis of facts that is difficult to generalize in a short article. But, as a general rule, even devastating responses can be placed in their proper context if other aspects of the case are defensible.
After gaining your admission, the officer will now proceed to seal the deal, so to speak, informing you that he considers you too impaired to drive and offering you the opportunity to prove otherwise if you can pass the “breath test.”
The DWI breath test
The final component of a DWI investigation is the breath test submission. Here, the driver will blow into a tube connected to an electronic device that is capable of measuring the amount of alcohol in their blood based on the number of alcohol particles transmitted on their breath. Most states require drivers to take this test as a condition of obtaining a driver’s license and severely penalize those who refuse to take the test by requiring lengthy suspensions of the driver’s driving privileges if they refuse to take the test. proof. These states are called implied consent states. There are a variety of defenses to an opposing breath test result. Some of these defenses are procedural, in other words, making sure the machine is properly calibrated, the officer is properly trained and certified to perform the test, and proper procedures have been followed to administer the test. Unfortunately, little of this evidence is recorded as the machine is at the sheriff’s station or possibly even the local jail. In addition, there are many medical conditions that can cause a false result on the machine that a DWI attorney can investigate. Lastly, depending on your results, some DWI cases can be won by hiring an expert who can estimate the level of impairment at the time of driving based on the level of impairment at the time of the test.