David is an Aerospace Project Engineer. His job title doesn’t go well with a DUI. He was willing to fight his DUI charges at all costs. I was happy to help him. The best thing that he had going for him was that when he was arrested for DUI, he was cooperative and treated the DUI officer well. The police officer even wrote in his DUI arrest report that David, “remained very cooperative and respectful throughout the entire investigation.” So, we had that going for us, which was nice.
David was driving home and was lost in Rincon, Georgia. He was new to town and lived in Port Wentworth, Georgia. The Rincon Police Officer was behind David on South Columbia Avenue. The police officer saw David fail to maintain his lane twice and pulled him over in the Walmart parking lot. The police officer asked for his license and David already had it in his hand for him. The cop wrote in his report that he noticed a “strong odor of alcohol emitting from the vehicle, observed a thick mumbled speech, and glassy bloodshot eyes.” The Rincon Police Officer asked David where he was coming from. David said, “Silverado’s,” a bar and grill in Port Wentworth, Georgia. The officer asked David to get out of his truck. David complied.
The officer asked David if he would do some field sobriety tests to make sure he was safe to drive. David said, “Yes,” and told him he used to be a police Officer for the Department of Defense. David was trained on how to give the Field Sobriety tests, which he was now asked to perform by the Rincon police officer. Another cop pulled up. The police officer gave David all three standardized field sobriety tests: the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, the One Leg Stand, and the Walk and Turn. David failed all three, naturally. The officer saw six of six clues on the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test. He found two of eight clues on the Walk and Turn and three of four clues on the One Leg Stand.
These field sobriety tests are a bad joke. You should never do them because you will fail and most likely the police officer will think you failed even when you did not. If the police officer asks you to do these exercises he already believes that you are under the influence of alcohol. So it is no surprise that he subjectively feels that you showed signs of being under the influence during your roadside agility tryouts.
The Rincon Police officer arrested David and took him to the Effingham Sheriff’s Office and gave him the breath tests on the Intoxilyzer 9000. David blew a .113 and was charged with O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391(a)(5) DUI – Alcohol 0.08 grams or more; and O.C.G.A. § 40-6-48 Failure to maintain lane. David called me the next day. About six months later we were in the Rincon Municipal Court in Bryan County and David got his DUI charge reduced to O.C.G.A. § 40-6-241 Failure to exercise due care. David is still working in the airline industry, and has no DUI on his record.
Judgment: Rincon DUI Breath Test Reduced for Aerospace Project Engineer
