MAXIMUM PENALTY: 6 Months In Jail
ISSUES: The Client had just left a restaurant where she had consumed a single drink in the course of a business dinner. On the way home, a police officer stopped her vehicle alleging she had been unable to maintain a single lane of travel. The officer alleged he smelled alcohol and asked her to submit to field sobriety exercises at roadside. The Client performed the exercises once in high heels, and once without them. The officer claimed she did not perform to his standards and arrested her. After being arrested, she gave a breath sample that tested well below his expectation of impairment. Her breath reading .022 / .023 was so low that at trial she was entitled to a jury instruction presuming no impairment by alcohol. The officer asked for a urine test, and the Client again submitted. The urine tested positive for several prescription medications that she had been lawfully taking for years. The State’s expert agreed at deposition that the Client could have built up a tolerance for the medications to the point where it cause no impairment, even when combined with moderate amounts of alcohol. The Prosecutor refused to drop the case. The case was pushed to trial.
OUTCOME: The State Dropped/Abandoned the Charges at trial.