Helpful Ideas On DUI/DWI Defenses In Houston
Part 2
Challenging The Officer’s Testimony Regarding Your Behavior
The arresting officer’s observation and submissions are important to prove the driver’s actual impairment from high alcohol or drug concentration in the driver’s body system. Testimony by the arresting officer may include:
- Poor performance results of a Field Sobriety Test
- The strength of alcohol odor coming from the driver
- Dangerous driving
- Unusual behavior
- Incoherent talking and speech
- Bloodshot eyes
When putting up a good defense for a DUI charge, the driver will have to demonstrate the insignificance of the arresting officer’s general observations. In some instances, depending on the facts of the case, it may be difficult for the defendant to puncture holes in the credibility of the officer’s observations before the jurors.
Introduce Witnesses Who Saw Things Differently
Another way to challenge the arresting officer’s observations is to provide a witness who was at the scene at the time of the arrest, and who can testify to contradict the officer’s submissions. The unfortunate incidence in many cases is the absence of a witness to support arguments for the accused driver. Also, the prosecution may claim the witness is biased if they were in the driver’s car as passengers.
Offer Valid Explanations For Your Appearance & Behavior
There are instances where the arresting officer may agree to accommodate certain explanations from the defendant for the DUI charge, reasons other than intoxication. Some of the common explanations for a driver’s poor performance in an FST can include body fatigue, physical disability, or an underlying medical condition. For bloodshot eyes, the explanation provided can be allergies or other irritants.
Defenses Related To Arrest Procedures
The wrong arresting procedure as done by the officer can be used to defend a DUI charge. In this case, the accused driver needs to prove the arresting officer broke laws or disregarded operating procedures when they were carrying out the arrest. If the law was broken during the arrest, the judge can discard the evidence out from the case because fair judgment cannot be based on illegality.
No Probable Cause For Arrest
The arresting officer needs a plausible reason to stop a car and another acceptable reason for carrying out an arrest on a DUI charge. For instance, the officer may stop a vehicle that has disregarded traffic stop/checkpoint laws. Checkpoints and roadblocks for DUI are exempted from this consideration. However, a driver’s traffic law violation can be enough to cause an arrest.
On the other hand, the judge is likely to preclude all subsequent evidence collected by an officer who stopped and arrested the accused driver without a genuine reason. A valid traffic checkpoint may not be necessarily considered a legitimate reason for the officer to arrest the driver; there must be clear reasons showing how the motorist violated a state’s DUI laws.
A genuine reason to make an arrest originates from the arresting officer’s observations and sometimes, may include a breath test, both of which may be difficult to challenge. The arresting officer may claim the driver smelt of alcohol, performed poorly on FSTs, and demonstrated slurred speech, which may suffice in many cases.
Nonetheless, it will prove challenging and an arduous task to challenge the legitimacy of a reason for arrest if the Breathalyzer results indicate the driver’s BAC was above the legally allowed limit.
No Miranda Warnings
Occasionally, Miranda warnings may be discussed in the case of DUI. Usually, police officers are expected to provide Miranda warnings to a suspect in custody before they can begin interrogations. This is to means an incriminating statement from a DUI suspect during police interrogation will probably not be used against the suspect during court proceedings.
Talking To An Attorney
The purpose of this article is to provide a general outlook on the available DUI defenses. Nonetheless, no better advice can be provided to an accused person if not through an experienced lawyer. We highly advise you to contact or call Attorney Jim Butler as soon as you have been arrested for driving under the influence. Visit our blog for more related articles. Click here for the first article in this series.