Police can’t prove you were drunk

Speaker 1
00:00:00:03 – 00:00:01:14
Hi, everyone. Did you know the state can’t prove your BAC at the time of driving?
This is Christina Williams with Just Criminal Law.
Speaker 2
00:00:08:21 – 00:00:10:05
And this is David Mann, legal storytelling specialist. You know, I always thought that
they could prove your blood alcohol content right there, and prove it completely.
But you’re saying they can’t.
Speaker 1
00:00:19:16 – 00:00:20:00
Right. I have a case right now where a client was camping, had a couple beers
and realized that he forgot something at the store, so he ran to the closest
convenience store and had a beer in his cupholder. Now, this was a two lane highway
and as he was driving, an oncoming car started to swerve into his lane. Well,
he took to the ditch and ended up having an accident where he suffered minor injuries. So law
enforcement responded.
Speaker 2
00:00:53:03 – 00:00:53:18
All right. So, that’s a pretty bad situation for him, because it looks like he’s got
an open container in his car and he must have been drinking. And I’m sure a lot of
assumptions were made. Is that what happened?
Speaker 1
00:01:04:10 – 00:01:04:27
Right. So, he was taken to the hospital and a little over a couple of hours passed from the
time of the accident until the officer was able to question him again. He was being seen by the
doctors. And so for a about two-and-a-half hours later, the officer asked him for a blood sample, which
he agreed to provide.
Speaker 2
00:01:30:06 – 00:01:31:10
Okay. So at that point, he’s giving a blood sample and it’s been a while. So what does that blood sample show?
Speaker 1
00:01:36:01 – 00:01:38:27
He came back a .08 percent,which is the legal limit, and he was charged with a DUI.
Speaker 2
00:01:42:05 – 00:01:43:25
Wow. All right. So, for a lot of people, that’s where the story kind of ends. They get a DUI
and they have the consequence, which is huge for that. But you’re saying, if a lawyer gets involved
they can actually find that it’s an unprovable .08, is that right?
Speaker 1
00:01:59:21 – 00:02:00:05
Right. And so what we have to do then is contend with some math that the state’s going to want to put into evidence,
saying, if you do retrograde exploration, and we’re talking about how the average person eliminates alcohol, we’re going
to assume, at the time of the accident, that he was as intoxicated as he was going to be that day. And, you know, people
get intoxicated on a bell curve. And so, as you have one beer, he might be a 0.1. And then you have another beer beer, or three
beers, you become, say, a .05. And as you continue to drink, your blood alcohol level rises until you become as intoxicated as you’re
going to get. You stopped drinking and then you start to become sober, and your blood alcohol content lowers again. And so the state,
in these types of cases, is always going to ask the jury to believe, at the time of the accident or the at the time of driving,
that the person is as intoxicated as they’re going to be, and ask the jury to believe that.
00:03:15:09 – 00:03:16:11
But it’s just as reasonable and just as believable that the person was not, in fact, as intoxicated as they were going
to be at the time of driving. In fact, they were as intoxicated as they were going to be after the driving. And so the defense can put
on just as persuasive evidence that the person is.05 or a .06 at the time of driving. And perhaps it’s at a higher level, like a 0.1
maybe an hour after the driving, and then it starts to come down to a .08, which is what the official result on the blood test comes back as.
Speaker 2
00:03:57:29 – 00:03:58:15
Mm hmm. So it’s a matter of them saying that the person is coming down to the .08, and you’re saying, ‘Yeah, we don’t know. It could have been that
they went from down to up and ended at the .08 a couple hours later. So an ordinary person would not know to even bring that up. And they should probably call
you to get you to do it for them. Right?
Speaker 1
00:04:20:00 – 00:04:22:24
We definitely understand the science behind what the state’s trying to put before the jury and we can contest that blood result.
If they want to get ahold of us, we’ll include a link in the description where they can call, text, or chat with a member of my team,
any time, day or night.
00:04:38:07 – 00:04:39:15
Here at Just Criminal Law, we know that you only get one shot at justice. So make yours count.