The sight of flashing police lights in your rearview mirror can cause your heart to practically pound out of your chest. And given the high stakes involved with an arrest for allegations of drunk driving, the stress can be severe and ongoing. Making matters worse is the fact that the possibility of conviction can threaten you with a whole host of penalties that can reshape the way you live your live. Jail time, enormous fines, license suspension or revocation and harm to your reputation and familial relationships are all very real possibilities.
With so much on the line, you owe it to yourself to build an as aggressive and an as effective criminal defense strategy as possible. While outright denying the allegations and arguing that the prosecution has failed to present sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction may be sufficient, you should also consider looking at errors that law enforcement made during their DUI investigation. Their mistakes could be the key piece of evidence that you need to escape conviction.
What mistakes can the police make during a DUI investigation?
There are several. You need to sniff out every one of them so that you can build the strongest criminal defense possible under the circumstances. Here are some of the errors that you’ll want to look for in your case:
- Improper administration of field sobriety tests: When you’re pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving, the police are probably going to ask you to submit to multiple field sobriety tests. The evidence they gain from these tests may support an arrest or a blood or breath sample to check your blood-alcohol level. But if the field sobriety tests you took were errantly conducted or the results were misread, then the police have relied on faulty evidence to arrest and charge you.
- Errant use of breath testing equipment: Prosecutors like to think that breath test results are the final nail they need to drive in their case and secure a conviction. But these tests aren’t as fail-proof as they’d have you believe. In many instances, the police improperly store, maintain and calibrate this equipment, which can result in errant readings. The same result can occur if the officer who administers the test fails to adhere to proper protocols. If you can show that the results of your breath test are questionable, then you may be able to prevent that evidence from being used against you.
- Illegal traffic stop: The police can’t pull you over just because they have a hunch. Instead, they must possess articulable facts that create a reasonable suspicion that you’ve violated the law in some way. If you were illegally stopped and subsequently arrested for drunk driving, then you may be able to block incriminating evidence supporting the drunk driving charges from being used against you. This is because that subsequently acquired evidence is considered tainted by illegality under a theory known as the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine.
Take control of your DUI criminal defense
There very well may be other criminal defense legal strategies available in your DUI case. It’s therefore important to thoroughly analyze the facts of your case so that you can identify any opportunities that can be exploited to protect your interests and your future. Don’t worry if you don’t know where to look to gather the evidence needed to build your case. You can work with your attorney to figure out the best legal strategy that maximizes your chances of beating the prosecution’s case.