DUI and Traffic
Charged with DUI: Get Ready To Fight!
 A charge of DUI may be successfully defended.
There are lots of things to challenge in a DUI case and so many areas in which an officer can make a mistake.
You can attack the initial stop made by the officer. You can attack the probable cause of the arrest. You can challenge the Field Sobriety Tests. You can challenge the performance of the breathalyzer machine or the blood test results. There is so much you can attack.
So many of the arrest warrants read the same in DUI cases. They go something like, “After a lawful traffic stop, I approached the subject vehicle and noticed an odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from the subject’s person. The subject had blood shot, watery eyes, slurred speech, and were unsteady on their feet. The subject was asked to perform field sobriety tests, of which they failed (or failed to perform satisfactorily) 2 out of 3 tests (or 3 out of 4, or whatever they put). I subsequently placed them under arrest for DUI.”
FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS
I completed a NHTSA/IACP Standardized Filed Sobriety Testing Practitioner Course administered in Bourne, Texas in October 2005. The course was administered by Walden, Platt and Associates www.waldenplatt.com of San Antonio, Texas. They are considered to be among the top instructors in the country. As a result of attending the course, I know how the tests are supposed to be administered. I know how they are to be scored. I know when the officer does not follow the correct procedure. As a result, I can attack the administration of the tests, and the results where the officer says you failed.
The officer is the one who tells you how to do the test. He is the one who grades the tests. It is his “opinion” that you were driving under the influence. He forms this “opinion” after he has already asked you to perform the tests. What do you think his opinion was before he asked you to take them? If he didn’t think you were impaired, he wouldn’t have asked you to take the tests in the first place.
Have you seen the tests? Have someone stand on one leg with their foot 6 inches off the ground for at least 25 seconds. If they put it down before the 25 seconds, they have just given one indicator that they are impaired. Raise their arms more than six inches from their side and they have just done a second indicator.
I think taking the tests are similar to learning the throw a baseball. The first time you throw a ball, you might not be able to hit the side of a barn. With practice, you can get proficient at throwing strikes, but that doesn’t happen right away.
When you take a Filed Sobriety Test, you are supposed to perform a task right, the first time you do it. On the side of the road. In the dark. With police lights flashing. With cars and trucks zooming by. On a surface that is slopped or uneven. And you are expected to do it right the first time, with no practice or warm up. While you are scared and embarrassed.
The officer asks you to imagine a straight line in front of you and walk it. Is your imaginary line the same imaginary line he is looking at? Are you stepping off his imaginary line when he grades you? Think about it.
It is not just the tests that you can attack. Come see us and learn about what else can be done to help you. Don’t just go down and plead guilty. Get the facts and get ready to fight!
Contact us about your legal matter today!
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