« Dui Defense Strategies: Errors of DUI Arresting Police Officer

I can give you an advice that if you’ve been arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI) then you should keep in your mind that there are numerous factors that can work in your favor and result in dismissal of your case.

The burden of proof is on the government, meaning the arresting officer and the prosecution, for a conviction to be rendered. It is required that all aspects of the charges must be proven, which includes but is not limited to proper administration of sobriety tests, chemical tests, probable cause and search and seizure protocols and following the law. An error can be caused in each of these human, mechanical or procedural factors, and in this series of articles we will outline these errors, any of which can work in favor of yours. In the following article we will discuss the errors of a DUI arresting police officer.

Errors of DUI arresting police officer

There could be an error in the judgment of the officer who stopped you for any number of reasons. Furthermore, it may be possible that the way he administer correct procedure after the arrest could be improper. Here we are giving examples of what can hurt the prosecutions case and therefore help you:

The officer Failed to Read Your Miranda Rights

If you are taken into custody or the police question you with the purpose that you may accept your crime, they are required to read you your rights beforehand.

If he had failed to read you your Miranda rights and has obtained a valid waiver of these rights, then any statements obtained after arrest, as the result of officer questioning and not so-called “spontaneous, unsolicited statements”, will most likely to be rejected by the court.

The Officer did not have Probable Cause for Stopping You

If this has happened to you that after the officer had stopped you, he may not have arrested you, he had put you in handcuffs and has taken you away for administration of chemical tests unless he has evidence that the crime of drunk driving has occurred.

In this case you are entitled to what is termed a suppression hearing. During this hearing a judge determines whether the arresting officer had the probable cause of arrest or not. At these hearings, the DUI defense lawyer cross-examines the DUI officer, and while the judge often sides with the prosecution, the defense has the opportunity to show the problems with the DUI investigation. As a result of this, the prosecution frequently will lessen the charge or work with the defense to settle the case.

The Officer Mistook the Reason for Faulty Driving

All the time sober drivers make mistakes like inappropriately wide turns, weaving in and out of traffic, drifting out of their lanes. Drivers mostly talk on cell phones or become confused by the kids. Probably the arresting officer had mistook any of these as signs of drunk driving, while in reality they may be nothing more than unsteady driving from not a drunk but merely inattentive driver.

Moreover, the driver may be exhausted which cause him to exhibit these same irregular driving responses. The officer might have confused the miscues of a drunk driver with those of someone who is drowsy or exhausted.

You Were Stopped Without Justification

A police officer may not by chance pull over you. There must be reasonable suspicion which a police officer must specify for which he has stopped you. Your case will probably be dismissed if this standard cannot be met in a suppression hearing, as described above.

The Officer Misjudged the Level of Intoxication

A study has been done by The Alcohol Behavior Research Laboratory at Rutgers University, which explained that police were not a better judge of intoxication levels than were bartenders or social drinkers. Moreover, none of these three groups could have judged the levels of intoxication accurately more than one quarter of the time. When an appeal to the jury is made by a DUI prosecutor based on the officers ability in this regard, his opinion deserves to carry no special weight.

In addition to this, police officers cite smell of alcohol on the breath ordinarily and consider it as a proof of the suspect’s intoxication. It is known by any chemist that alcohol (ethanol) has no odor. This Means that the smell of alcohol are the other agents in the beverage. If a person drink non-alcoholic beer then also it will give the breath the odor that many officers will claim is the smell of alcohol. It is indicated by all that the odor of alcohol on the breath that probably some alcohol is recently consumed by the suspect. But by this it is not confirmed that ones blood alcohol content (BAC) is greater than the .08% level required demonstrating legal intoxication.

The Officer Found No Indication of Mental Impairment

Toxicologists know that if the impairment is being caused by the consumption of alcohol then a degree of mental impairment always precedes physical impairment. It is often reported by the police officers that persons they arrested were coherent in understanding and answering questions, and throughout the investigation and arrest they were following directions. It is well established scientifically; that if there is no presence of mental impairment due to alcohol, then it follows that there was not even any physical impairment due to alcohol. The police officers may notice some physical impairment, which can arise from any number of factors, such as sickness, injury, age, obesity, nervousness, or just a general lack of coordination.

Lack of Correlation between Speeding and DUI

While speeding in itself is against the law, it has been demonstrated by the studies that speeding is not a correlative factor to driving while intoxicated. A speeding driver is as probably to be sober as drunk, and so speeding can not be counted as evidence that the driver is drunk. An officer who is giving speeding as the reason of DUI arrest, then it will be considered that he has performed his action on invalid assumptions.

The Officer Mistook Other Symptoms for Intoxication

For filing DUI reports police use preprinted forms. These forms only contain boxes which are simply check off by the officers to indicate that the suspect exhibited “bloodshot and watery eyes,” “slurred speech”, an “unsteady gait” and a “flushed face”. In San Diego County, no video cameras are there in the police cars, so these statement are usually not challenged by the inexperienced DUI lawyer.

As it is known by all of us that these symptoms can be caused by numerous other conditions. Such as allergies, exhaustion, sleeplessness or eyestrain could make ones eyes bloodshot. A person’s face could be flushed due to the anger over the traffic stop. Embarrassment or becoming flustered could also be the cause due to which one slurs his or her words. Yet, these causes may not be taken into account by the officer, however obvious it is that these behaviors are just as likely to come from causes not related to alcohol consumption.

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