The Stop
It was the twenty-eighth of March, a few minutes before midnight. The night was clear and the road was dry. Mr. K was driving his Chevrolet on Veterans Parkway, near where it crosses the Little Ogeechee River. There was not much traffic. He was going seventy-six. The sign said fifty-five.
The trooper was Georgia State Patrol. He had a laser gun, and the laser said seventy-six. He put on his lights, and Mr. K pulled over. It was the thing to do, and he did it.
What the Trooper Wrote
The trooper came to the window. Later he wrote in his report that he "detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from the interior of the vehicle." He wrote that Mr. K's speech was slow and slurred. He wrote that the eyes were bloodshot and watery and the pupils were wide. A man can write many things in a report. Writing them does not make them so.
Then came the tests. There were three. In the first the trooper watched Mr. K's eyes follow a moving point, looking for a jerk in them. That is Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus. In the second Mr. K walked heel to toe along a line, turned, and walked back. In the third he stood on one leg and counted. The trooper said he failed all three. They are hard tests. They are hard in the dark on the shoulder of a highway, with the cars going by and a man in uniform watching you and writing.
He Said No
Mr. K was arrested. The trooper asked for his blood. Mr. K said no. It was his right, and he used it. So there was no number. There was only the trooper's word, and the charge he wrote down was DUI Less Safe.
In Georgia a refusal has a price. The State moves to take your license. That was the first fight. We fought it, and we won, and the suspension did not stand.
Recorder's Court
The second fight was in the Recorder's Court of Chatham County. There were two tickets. One said DUI. One said speeding. The first court date was in June. It was continued so we could negotiate and look at the video. The work went on through the summer. It is slow work, and most of it no one sees.
On the eighth of September it ended. The State dropped the speeding charge. The judge wrote Nolle Prosequi across the ticket, and the ticket was finished. The DUI became Reckless Driving. The judge wrote that across the other ticket in big letters, and it was the best thing written on either one.
There was a sentence. There is always a sentence. A fine of six hundred dollars and costs. Twelve months of probation. Forty hours of community service. A victim impact panel. Alcohol treatment if it was recommended. A day in jail, and he already had credit for that day. It was not nothing. But it was not a DUI.
What It Came To
He did not walk away clean. No one ever does. But he walked away without a DUI on his record, and that is a different thing entirely.
If you are stopped on a Georgia road, say little. Know your rights. Then call a lawyer who will fight.
Here is a link to the judgment: https://savannahduilawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Jason-Cerbone-got-a-mans-DUI-reduced-to-reckless-driving-in-Recorders-Court-of-Chatham-County-in-Savannah-Georgia.pdf
