Law Office of Mark Stevens
5 Manor Parkway
Salem, NH 03079
Telephone: (603) 893-0074
Fax: (603) 893-5022
info@byebyedwi.com
Admitted in all state and federal courts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Representing clients in criminal defense matters, including narcotics charges, drunk driving charges, Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), Operating Under the Influence (OUI), and Driving Under the Influence (DUI). Representation of clients at Department of Motor Vehicles (NH) and Registry of Motor Vehicles (MA) hearings and appeals.


WEEK OF April 23, 2006

Sponsored by ByeByeDWI.com

DRIVER STOPPED FOR HEADLIGHT OUT, ADMITS TO DRINKING ONE BEER, FAILS 3 FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS, BLOWS .118 ON PRELIMINARY BREATH TEST THEN REFUSES TO TAKE A BREATH TEST AT THE POLICE STATION

BASIC FACTS: Defendant stopped for driving without a headlight on at about 1 a.m. in a residential neighborhood. The officer interrogated the defendant about drinking and the defendant said he had "one beer".  The officer then asked the defendant to take “field sobriety tests”.  The defendant agreed to take the field sobriety tests. The officer claimed that the driver was :unsteady on his feet" as he walked to the rear of the vehicle. The driver performed the usual series of roadside gymnastics: the HGN test (this is where the officer directs the driver to “follow-the-pen” and then determines that the driver is drunk because his eyes twitch slightly while following the pen), the “heel to toe test”, referred to in police DWI manuals as the "walk and turn test" and the “one-leg-stand test”. The driver allegedly fails all the tests. The officer then asks the defendant to take a “preliminary breath test”, a hand held device kept in police cars for such occasions. Like most preliminary breath testing devices, this one produced no printout and the only place the “result” is only stored is in the officer’s memory. The defendant allegedly blows a .118. The officer arrested the driver and charged him with DWI.

At the police station, the officer asks the defendant if he will take another breath test. The defendant refused to take the breath test at the police station..

TRIAL OUTCOME: Attorney Stevens moved to suppress the alleged results of the preliminary breath test because the arresting officer failed to read the defendant the required warnings that the statute on preliminary breath testing requires for admissibility in a DWI trial.  The state objected to this motion.  The Trial Court granted the motion.  The state would not agree to reduce the charge. The case then went to trial.  After the trial, the defendant was found "NOT GUILTY!"

RESULT: NOT GUILTY VERDICT!!!

Attorney Stevens thanks God for this successful defense!!!





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