Taimoor Rana is seasoned criminal defense attorney specializing in DUI related cases. He shares his expert legal opinion here The DUI Officer and “Selective Memory” »
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- How does every detail of a DUI investigation is recalled by a police officer testifying in a drunk driving trial recall months earlier?
When a motorist is stopped by an officer and the officer suspects that he may be under the influence of alcohol, he from the moment when he stops the motorist begins to mentally record various observations. He may notify many things such as he may notice that was the driving erratic, and in what way? How did the suspect reacted to the red overhead lights? How did the suspect pull over and park? Was an odor of alcohol there on the driver’s breath, and how strong it was? Could it have come from the passenger? Was the face of driver flushed, eyes bloodshot, speech thick and slurred? What was his response to the questions and directions? What were his answers to questions asked by the cop such as "Where he is going? What time is it? Have he been drinking? What? When? Where? How much?" Did the suspect have a current license and registration? Did the suspect fumble with his wallet pulling out his license? Was the suspect stagger when stepping from the car? What did the passenger say? How did she appear? And so on.
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Sacramento Cop Arrested for DUI »
Sacramento Police Officer Chris Hughes has been arrested by CHP, the police officer goes by "Keith," and he was booked in the Sacramento County jail for DUI.
Sgt. Konrad Von Schoech has said that, there are over 1,100 men and women in their department and they are all human. However they do expect their officers to hold themselves to a higher standard.
They are expected to maintain a higher standard, even when off-duty.
CHP has said that witnesses has spotted the officer in his car along a busy stretch of traffic on Hazel Avenue near Madison late Saturday afternoon. His car was in drive and he was asleep at the wheel.
The fire department thought that may be it is a medical emergency and responded for that. But when firefighters got there, they suspected that Hughes was drunk and so they called police.
On Monday, we have tried a lot to talk with Officer Hughes. But no one answered at the front door.
Von Schoech has said that what he can tell us is that the Sacramento Police Department shall conduct a thorough and concise administrative investigation. And at the conclusion of that investigation, appropriate action will be taken.
Right now as a result of this, Officer Hughes has been pulled from patrol.
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The National College for DUI Defense »
Until a few years ago, those attorneys who attempt to defend a client who is having against drunk driving charges were general practitioners. These attorneys had little, if any, understanding of the nature of the offense. They were not familiar with such methods of DUI investigation such as as field sobriety tests, and seminars on how to defend these clients were almost completely lacking.
The most important thing was that, defense lawyers doesn’t know anything about the complexities of blood alcohol analysis, whether of blood, breath or urine. They don’t know the answers to the following questions that how does the Breathalyzer work? What does infrared analysis referred to? What is Gas chromatography? How is the metabolism of alcohol takes place in the human body? What is the "Widmark’s formula"? what is Hematocrit? What is "retrograde extrapolation" and how does it work? What are those physiological variables that can occur between individuals? What are those medical conditions that can effect a breath reading and how? What could happen if in case blood samples ferment or coagulate?
There is an involvement of knowledge of such highly technical fields as physiology, organic chemistry, physics, biophysics, electrical engineering in the chemical analysis of blood, breath or urine but these are the subjects that are far beyond the experience and training of lawyers.
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Why the Breathalyzers don’t Work Properly »
Here I am giving just one of many examples explaining why the breathalyzers do not work properly. The computers that are inside Breathalyzers what actually do is that they just multiply the amount of alcohol in a DUI suspect’s breath sample 2100 times in order to get the blood alcohol concentration ("BAC").
It happens because they are programmed in such a way that they assume that the suspect has 2100 units of alcohol in his blood for every single unit of alcohol in his breath. This is what we call the "partition ratio". But this ratio is only an average: actual ratios shows variation from as low as 900:1 to as high as 3500:1; if individual ratio is different, then surely the BAC result will be different.
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On Arrest, Alexandria Chief Failed 4 DUI Tests »
On Saturday night when Arlington police arrived at the crash involving Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker, a strong odor of alcohol has been smelled by an officer and he also noticed that Baker’s speech was repetitive and hesitant, according to a criminal complaint.
Baker, who is on administrative leave, has failed four field sobriety tests: namely the nine-step walk and turn, the 30-second leg lift, counting backwards and saying the alphabet, as said by the complaint.
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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:
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Investigation of DUI Cases: What are the SFST’s? »
In this article we have described about the tests which the cops ask a person to perform during a DUI or drunk driving offense stop. The information that is provided in this article is pertinent to DUI offenses across the nation as SFST stands for Standard Field Sobriety Tests which means they are considered to be standard across the United States.
Investigation of DUI Cases:
What are the SFST’s? How do CA courts deal with FST’s that are not performed in accordance with NHTSA? These are the frequently asked questions about SFST’S. I have tried to give the answer to these questions.
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How to Avoid a DUI/DWI Arrest »
Imagine that you have gone out for a dinner, to a party, or to spend an evening with friends. There you have taken a couple of drinks for example 2 to 3 drinks over a two hour period. Still you feel fine enough and you are sure that you will be able to drive home safely without any problem.
While traveling towards home on the way to home, a very minor, nit-picking traffic violation is committed by you such as:
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You have rolled a stop sign.
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You have run a yellow light.
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You have not come to a complete stop behind the white line at an intersection.
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You have changed lanes without a turn signal.
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You have changed lanes within 100 feet of an intersection
At the same time while you commit that violation an officer is on DWI STEP patrol that night, this means that he is there to perform a specific duty of making some DWI arrests and for this he is getting an overtime. He has seen your violation for which he pulls you over. He comes close to your car and asks for your license and registration. You hand it over to him and ask him if anything is wrong. He might shine his flashlight directly into your eyes, which makes you wince. He then asks you that,
“How much have you had to drink tonight?”
What will you do if this happens to you?
First and most important thing is that, you must understand that once you are asked this question that how much you had to drink that night, you are now become officially the subject of a DWI investigation, so be serious and don’t take it lightly. Because from now everything you say and whatever you do is being recorded as an evidence against you, so behave and answer wisely considering it to be a serious matter.
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