- Don’t drink and drive if you are impaired. Don’t drive anything, even golf carts.
- NEVER admit that you drank any alcohol.
- Never perform field sobriety tests.
- Never blow into a portable breath test device.
- Be quiet. Don’t blurt out anything to the cop to try and explain yourself because it will be used against you in court.
- Have your license and other documents in hand and offer these to the cop.
- Never sit behind the wheel if you are drunk. Don’t even sit in the front seat of a car if you are intoxicated.
- Blend in with traffic because this makes it harder for the police to detect you than if you are the lone driver.
- Don’t be a good Samaritan on the way home because random acts of kindness bring the police around a lot.
- Stay in your car unless told to get out by the cop.
- Sleep in the back seat if you must. Turn off the ignition and put the keys in your pocket. Make sure the car is off the highway.
- Breath tests can be wrong when you have recently been around volatile fumes, like lacquer, paint, gasoline, or dry cleaning fluids. Always get a second independent test.
- Use the driver’s rights cards because it speaks for you to the Savannah Police.
- Eat well.
- Don’t argue with the officer. Give him your documents and say nothing except to respond to his questions.
- If you are in an accident, after having drank, don’t talk to anyone at the scene about anything. Never take any field sobriety tests. If anyone was hurt or killed, refuse all tests.
- Try to record the conversations between you and the cops because the officer’s missing or defective warnings can cause test results to be excluded from evidence.
- Find a skilled DUI attorney who knows the ropes. You want a DUI trial specialist because he can beat the DUI or he can probably work you a better plea deal.
Archives for March 2012
Preliminary Breath Test
One Million people may be on the way. Savannah’s 2012 Saint Patrick’s Day Parade could be the largest in the world.
The Preliminary Breath Test (PBT) is used incorrectly by many police officers in Savannah, Georgia. On Saint Patrick’s Day it gets used worse. The PBT used by the police in Savannah, Georgia is the Alco-Sensor.
The Preliminary Breath Test (PBT) is a roadside initial alcohol screening device. It’s used to confirm the chemical basis of your impairment. The PBT can help to confirm all other evidence and to confirm the officer’s judgment as to whether you are impaired. It’s used to show the presence of alcohol in your system. The PBT does not show how much alcohol you have in your body, but rather if you show any alcohol in your body. Positive Alco-Sensor result is not enough. The PBT should never be the sole basis for a DUI arrest. They are never checked for calibration. Police departments lack the equipment and training. Most importantly, they are not right. For more information on Georgia’s Preliminary Breath Test, see Allen Trapp’s blog post: More on PBT’s. Also, check out Justin McShane’s blog post: DUI Myth Busters: Breath Test Accuracy.
First: the police officer is trained to give you three (3) field sobriety tests (Eye test, Walk and Turn, One Leg Stand). Second: based on these tests, he must decide if there is probable cause to arrest you for DUI. Third and Last: he may give you a PBT.
A good deal of police officers do give you the PBT first or some where in between the three field sobriety tests. This is wrong.
How High is Drunk?
What’s the legal limit for DUI?
How much can you have before you are under the influence and DUI less safe in Savannah? It depends. It depends on how much time you drink. Are you a man or woman? How big are you? Did you drink on an empty stomach?
It is not against the law to have a drink and drive. Rather, you break the law if you have too many drinks and drive. That’s the law in Chatham County. If you are an adult you may drive after you drank as long as you are not “under the influence of alcohol.” What does that mean? Lawrence Taylor, the Dean of DUI Defense attorneys says that two glasses of wine will not put you under the influence of alcohol or over the legal limit of .08. See his blog post, The DUI Exception to the Constitution. But then Mr. Taylor has another better blog post with a chart, How many drinks can I have? A Florida DUI lawyer says the two drink rule is no good. See his blog post, Florida DUI Attorneys Discuss Why The Two Drink Rule Is Not Correct. But, then why have you heard of people who got a DUI and they had only two drinks? Because DUI is an opinion. If you don’t take the breath test or a blood test, then your liberty depends on the police officer’s opinion of your sobriety. Is this fair, accurate, and reliable?
Prepare for Jury Trial
I pledge allegiance to prepare every one of my DUI cases in Savannah, Georgia like it’s headed straight to a jury trial. I am open to a good plea-bargain, if the deal means no DUI for you. If you walk in to plead out, you’ll never get a good deal because the district attorney knows you aren’t going to do anything about it anyway.
The DUI Police Report
But, the police report looks bad, you say. Until trial the police report is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what it says, the way is to not get scared and put them to the test — go to trial no matter how bad the report seems. This is the only way. There is no bulletproof police report. All reports can be overcome. All cop’s opinions can be defeated. Now, I make no guarantees. But, there are no foolproof reports. And most of the time, the police report is good for making the officer look like a moron at trial. The Police report is useless to everyone until we have the officer on the stand and can embarrass him. I’m always working on this. So I do it well. I do it to slam your DUI. I know this sounds like bragging, but you have to have confidence to be a champion and that is the only thing I ever wished to be.