Taimoor Rana is seasoned criminal defense attorney specializing in DUI related cases. He shares his expert legal opinion here GERD, Acid Reflux and False Breathalyzer Results »
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- Steve is currently facing criminal charges for driving under the influence of alcohol. Although he was not under the influence of alcohol. It is just that he had one drink after work and then he was stopped at a DUI sobriety checkpoint on the way to home. The officer who has stopped him smelled the alcohol on his breath and asked Steve to step out of his car so that he may take some field sobriety tests. He did fairly well on the tests but, to make it more sure that he was not driving under influence, the officer asked him to breathe into the breath machine that had been set up by them at the checkpoint.
The results show .09%. Steve was then immediately arrested for DUI, handcuffed and they had taken him to jail; his license was immediately confiscated by the police officers and they have given him a notice of automatic suspension. When finally he was released after six hours, they gave him a notice to appear in court for arraignment on drunk driving charges.
What had happened?
How could James have only consumed one beer but registered .09% on the machine which is at least four times higher than what it would be expected?
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How do I know the blood they tested was mine? »
Let me tell you about a case that I have handled. I had a young client, I’ll call him "John", who had been arrested for drunk driving by the Los Angeles Police Department and they had drawn a blood sample from his arm. He repeatedly told me that he was innocent, and I believed him.
Problem: The sample that was drawn from his arm had the blood alcohol content of .15% which is almost twice the drunk driving limit.
Now what?
At that time I obtained a portion of the sample from the LAPD crime lab and then I sent it to a private lab that I use for reanalyzing blood of all my DUI clients. It waqs reported by the lab that the blood alcohol level was .13% though it was lower, but it was still much higher than to be under .08%. As I requested them so they also tested for preservative and anticoagulant (either fermentation or coagulation can raise the alcohol level in the sample), but they found everything in order. John still insisted that he was not driving under the influence of alcohol.
The only other possibility in this case was a faulty "chain of custody". Explaining this in other words, LAPD lab got the vial mixed up and someone else’s blood was tested by them. So I had the sample blood-typed to find out if it was that of another arrestee.
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The Police Officer as DUI “Expert” »
The subjective opinions of the arresting officer are of great importance in the drunk driving case. The officer should have the abilities to correctly assess DUI symptoms of intoxication: observations of driving, personal symptoms (slurred speech, flushed face, etc.), answers to questions, performance on field sobriety tests. Criminal charges will be filed by the prosecutor is legally determined by his DUI report (and his opinion in that report; it is his decision by which it will be decided that whether to suspend the driver’s license or not; the guilt or innocence of the person he arrests will be largely decided by his testimony at trial. So how much expert is the average police officer at judging levels of intoxication in a DUI case?
In order to give the answer to this question, a series of experiments have been conducted by the researchers at Rutger University’s Alcohol Behavior Research Laboratory. In order to compare with officers, two groups of non-police witnesses were first tested. In one, 49 lay social drinkers sat in a room as various subjects have been brought in one at a time for observation and to ask related questions. Some of them have consumed varying amounts of alcohol while the others had consumed nothing; each had been given tests for blood-alcohol levels. Each in turn answered questions that were asked by the lay witnesses until all were finished, then they got up and left. Then each of the 49 witnesses were asked to judge state of sobriety or intoxication of each subject. It was concluded by the researchers that the assumption that social drinkers would prove to be accurate judges…was not confirmed.
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San Diego DUI Record Expungement »
In this article I will explain you the details of DUI record expungement. Here I have written some benefits of DUI Expungement, its qualifications and FAQs about DUI Expungement.
DUI Expungement Qualifications.
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It is needed that your DUI conviction must not have resulted in a prison sentence, although if you have incarcerated in a city or county jail or detention center then you your eligibility for expunging your case will not be disqualified.
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It is required that you must not have any pending criminal charges or current court cases.
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It is needed that you have successfully completed your probationary term and you have met all terms of your sentencing, you are not currently in custody, and have since been lawfully abiding.
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If you have never been placed on probation for your DUI, then your offense will be eligible for expungement after one year from the date of your conviction.
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