Can I Be Convicted of a DUI if the Police Pulled Me Over Illegally?
A DUI arrest can upend your life and put your ability to drive at risk. If you cannot drive, you may be unable to keep your job, make doctor’s appointments, or attend family events. A conviction can have further consequences, including jail time, fines, and restrictions on your future driving privileges. With everything that you have to lose, avoiding a DUI conviction is extremely important.
If you’ve been arrested on DUI charges and your blood test showed you were over the legal limit, you might feel like conviction is inevitable. However, this is not always the case.
Challenging the Constitutionality of a California Traffic Stop
One way a skilled defense attorney can help you avoid a DUI conviction is by challenging the constitutionality of the traffic stop that led to your arrest. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects you from unreasonable searches or seizures. The Supreme Court has interpreted this protection to prohibit police officers from pulling you over without an objective reason to do so. For a traffic stop to be constitutional, the police must be able to identify specific and articulable facts that caused them to form a “reasonable suspicion” that you had committed, were committing, or were about to commit a crime.
If you were charged with a DUI after the police pulled you over without a reasonable basis for doing so, your lawyer can file a motion to suppress any evidence that the police obtained from the illegal traffic stop. If the judge agrees that the police did not have a reasonable suspicion to pull you over, then all of the evidence collected during or after the traffic stop gets thrown out. Typically, if a motion to suppress the evidence stemming from an illegal traffic stop is granted in a DUI case, the prosecutor will dismiss the charges for a lack of evidence.
What Constitutes Reasonable Suspicion For a Traffic Stop?
A police officer can pull you over on a reasonable suspicion of DUI if you are driving recklessly or erratically. However, an officer can also instigate a traffic stop based on a reasonable suspicion of any traffic offense. The initial reason for the stop does not need to be related to a DUI; rather, a reasonable suspicion of any of the many traffic infractions or violations suffices. For a traffic stop to be unconstitutional, the police must be unable to point to facts warranting a reasonable suspicion of any offense.
This means that an officer can pull you over for speeding and later arrest you for DUI, even if they did not initially suspect that you were driving drunk. For example, if your eyes are bloodshot or you slur your speech, the officer can investigate whether you are under the influence. Typically, to continue the investigation, the officer would ask you to participate in Field Sobriety Testing or take a breathalyzer. If the officer is able to gather enough evidence to have probable cause that you are driving under the influence during the traffic stop, you can be arrested and charged with DUI.
Because most of the evidence that supports a DUI charge is obtained during or after a traffic stop, challenging the constitutionality of the traffic stop itself is a valuable strategy for avoiding a conviction. It’s crucial that you hire a seasoned criminal attorney who understands the ins-and-outs of constitutional law and knows how to make this argument.
The Chambers Law Firm has years of experience defending people charged with DUIs in the greater Los Angeles area. Contact us today at 714-760-4088 or info@orangecountyduifirm.com to schedule a no-obligation case consultation.
