Your lawyer may use proof of misconduct to have your charges dismissed or reduced.
Police misconduct — including excessive force — has been an important topic in the news lately, and for good reason. In some cases, police officers have abused their authority, while in other situations, police simply make a bad judgment call. If you believe that the police engaged in misconduct when stopping or arresting you for a DUI, you may be wondering what happens next.
As a DUI defense lawyer in Orange County, CA can explain, there are many types of police misconduct that may occur in a DUI case. For example, an officer may not have had a valid, legal reason to stop your vehicle in the first place. If the officer did not have reasonable suspicion that a crime occurred before stopping you, then the stop is invalid. Your attorney may be able to argue that anything that came from the stop — such as the results of your breath or blood test — should be suppressed as a result.
In other cases, a police officer may not have probable cause to arrest you on suspicion of a DUI. If you were not displaying any signs of intoxication, were driving carefully, and did not take field sobriety tests or a roadside breathalyzer test that gave the officers probable cause to arrest you for a DUI, then the arrest itself may be invalid. Again, your DUI defense lawyer in Orange County, CA can challenge this arrest in court.
California has strict rules for administering chemical breath and blood tests. This includes making sure that a person has not burped or vomited for a period of time before taking a breath test and following lab procedures for taking a blood sample. If these rules are not followed, it could be a basis for arguing that the results of the test should be tossed.
There are many other ways that the police may engage in misconduct. For example, unless you are currently on DUI probation or under the age of 21, you are not required to take a roadside breathalyzer test (also known as a preliminary alcohol screening, or PAS). You are also never required to perform field sobriety tests. If a law enforcement officer tells you that you don’t have a choice, and must take one or both of these tests, your DUI defense lawyer in Orange County, CA may be able to argue that the results of those tests should be excluded — and that there was no basis for making a DUI arrest.
A DUI can have a serious impact on your life, leading to criminal penalties as well as a license suspension. It can also result in significantly higher insurance premiums and other collateral consequences, like the loss of your job. It is vital to hire a DUI attorney who has experience handling these cases — and knows how to fight back against police misconduct.
The Chambers Law Firm represents Californians who have been charged with a range of DUI offenses. Contact us today at 714-760-4088 or dchambers@clfca.com to schedule a free initial consultation with a member of our team.
