Archives for November 2013

“I’m so nervous,” he said. “They have a verdict in one hour…Is that good?” “I don’t know,” I said, “I’ve seen it go both ways.” The Clerk of the Chatham County State Court read the verdict: “For the charge of DUI less safe, we the jury find the defendant, Mr. B not guilty.” He grabbed my arm. I looked him in the eye. They looked red and watery. I was glad for him.

Mr. B is from Jamaica. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and child. He works for Delta. The night that this happened he was working in Chatham County. He had worked from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. He went out, had two beers, and headed back to the Condo on Tybee Island. He got pulled over on Butler Avenue for Speeding by a Tybee Island police officer.

The police officer asked him, “Do you know why I stopped you?” Mr. B said, “Because I was going too fast.” The police officer asked him if he wanted an accuracy check on the radar, and Mr. B said “No.” The Tybee officer smelled alcohol and saw that his eyes looked sleepy and told him to get out of the car. The cop asked how much he had drunk. Mr. B told him two beers. He asked him to do some field sobriety tests and within nine minutes he handcuffed Mr. B and arrested him for DUI less safe alcohol 40-6-391(a)(1) and Speeding 40-6-181.

I needed to prove that the police officer gave the field sobriety tests wrong, and invalidated them. The thing was that this police officer was straight and true. He is a good man, and I rather liked him. So there I was; I had him on cross-examination and I knew he gave the field sobriety tests wrong. Half-way through, I decided to stop challenging him face to face. I called in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration DUI Detection & Standardized Field Sobriety Tests Instructor. He testified that the Tybee police officer did not do the field sobriety tests correctly which made them invalid and unreliable.

There was no video, so I called an investigator to the stand and he showed the jury photographs of where all of this happened on Tybee Island.

We started at nine in the morning and finished around eight in the evening. It took the jury one hour to decide to let Mr. B go home not guilty to DUI less safe, and guilty of Speeding. I am grateful because the Judge of Chatham County State Court gave us a fair trial, and that to me is a square shake.

Judgment: Not Guilty to DUI in One Hour

In the State Court of Chatham County Georgia, the jury gave the verdict: Not guilty to DUI, less safe (alcohol) 40-6-391(a)(1). The charge for no headlights was dismissed.

Calvin was asleep when the phone rang. Kat and Mike needed a ride home. He had been with them earlier. He had gone downtown in Savannah around seven that evening. He had three beers and went home at ten because he was tired and had to work the next day. Now it was three in the morning and Calvin got up. He drove back downtown to Savannah. He picked them up and headed back to Pooler when he got pulled over by the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police for no headlights.

The cop saw that Calvin wore a wristband from a bar in Savannah. He ordered him out of the Infiniti. On I-16 he had Calvin do some DUI field sobriety tests. He found Calvin’s attempts to be wrong. He arrested him for DUI, less safe (alcohol) 40-6-391(a)(1); and no headlights. He locked him in handcuffs. He put him in the back of his car. Then he asked Calvin to take a breath test at the the Chatham County Georgia jail. Calvin said “No,” because he had done everything else the cop asked and look where that got him.

We hired a DUI field sobriety expert instructor.  He testified that the police officer did the One Leg Stand wrong as well as the Walk and Turn, and invalidated both of them.  We also hired an investigator to take pictures of the location in Chatham County Georgia. He testified that the shoulder of I-16 was not flat and level and was in bad condition.

In the end the jury gave the verdict: Not guilty to DUI, less safe (alcohol) 40-6-391(a)(1) in Chatham County Georgia. The violation of the headlights requirement charge was dismissed.

Judgment: DUI Not Guilty in Chatham County