BASIC FACTS:  Police clocked a car driving 50 mph in a 35 mph zone on a deserted road.  The driver thought the speed limit was 50 mph, which in fact it was just a hundred yards down the road.  The police activated the blue lights of the police cruiser.  The driver immediately responded and pulled over.

The officers smelled alcohol, and the driver admitted having two glasses of wine with dinner.  The driver said she had had her last drink about three hours earlier.  The police demanded her license and registration and then they ordered her from her car.  The driver submitted to a battery of “field sobriety tests”, unaware that she could refuse to take part in the “testing” process.  After the field sobriety testing ritual, the officer arrested her.  She did a “follow the pen test”, also known as the “Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus” test, which is when the officer waives his pen in front of the driver’s face and decides the driver is drunk because her pupils moved from slightly from side to side.  She went on to fail the nine step walk and turn test (the “walk the line” test) and the “one leg stand test”.  During the “walk the line” test the driver never stepped off the line but she “raised her arms more than 6 inches for balance” and “failed to make proper heel-to-toe connection”.  The driver was arrested for DWI.  She agreed to blow into the drunk-in-the-box at the police station, but her breath test did not occur until 2 hours after she drove.

PLEA OFFER: None.  The state offered no break for this highly cooperative driver who had no prior history of DWI or any other kind of criminal record.  This gave the defendant no option but to fight the case.

DEFENSE:     Actual innocence and sobriety.  At trial, Attorney Stevens pointed out the large number of facts that were consistent with sobriety, including the way the driver actually performed during the field sobriety testing ritual, the fact that she was willing to blow into the drunk-in-the-box, and the fact that she wasn’t even tested until 2 hours later, minimizing the evidentiary value of the test result.

TRIAL RESULT:      NOT GUILTY!!!!!

Attorney Stevens thanks God for this successful defense and victory!!!

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