BASIC FACTS: A police officer observed a motorcycle rider who was not wearing eye protection while driving at night.  The officer was assigned to a “DWI patrol”, in which the police look for signs of impairment among motorists.  The driver, however, was driving at the speed limit, was maintaining his lane properly, and obeying all other rules of the road.  The officer activated her blue emergency lights and the driver pulled over accordingly.  The driver waited for the officer to approach as he stood next to his bike.  The officer demanded that the driver provide him with his license and registration.  The driver complied with the command, but his production of his registration was somewhat delayed.

After smelling a “moderate odor of alcohol”, and noting “slurred speech”, the officer asked the driver to perform “field sobriety test”.  The driver decided to agree to the “tests”.  The officer conducted the “waiving the pen test” which is also known as the “horizontal gaze nystagmus test” or “HGN test”.  In this sidewalk standard the officer waives the pen and makes a conclusion that the driver is drunk based on the way his or her pupils move.  The driver agreed to perform the pen test, which he predictably “failed”.  Next the officer asked him to walk down an imaginary line in heel to toe fashion with his arms by his side.  The driver wisely told the officer that he had a medical issue, a bad back, but he plodded along as best he could for the heel-to-toe test.  He told the officer his back problems would prevent him from standing on one leg, which is the standard third stanza in the average DWI field sobriety anthem. The officer asked him to stand on one leg for 30 seconds.  The driver told him that he couldn’t do that due to the back condition.  The officer then asked him to do a “Romberg Test”, an unusual exercise in which the driver stands with his head tilted back and his eyes closed and estimates the passage of time.  At the end of all this, the driver was charged with DWI.  He elected to exercise his right not to blow into the breath testing box at the police station. 

After the arrest, the driver hired Attorney Stevens to fight the DWI charge.

TRIAL:          The state produced the testimony of the police officer.  Attorney Stevens presented a civilian witness who observed the driver operating his motorcycle without any signs of impairment. 

After trial, the Court found the motorcycle rider NOT GUILTY. 

RESULT:      NOT GUILTY ON DWI CHARGE!!!

Attorney Stevens thanks God for this successful defense!!!

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE:

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;

So that whoever believes will, in Him, have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

John 3: 14-17.

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