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Prosecutor concedes DUI arrest was illegal Vero Beach prosecutors last week dismissed DUI charges against a former police Detective. Police arrested the detective after unlawfully stopping the car in which she was a passenger. This traffic stop and the DUI arrest that followed were unlawful. Florida law allows a police officer to make an arrest…

To be allowed to tell the jury your breath tests results, the prosecution must first “lay a foundation” to support the introduction of the “numbers” that are to be considered by the jury. The prosecutor must establish that the machine was in good working order and that it had been used in the manner approved…

The term “discovery” refers to rules of procedure in a criminal case that lawyers use before trial to gather information about the nature and quality of the evidence possessed by the opposing side. Examples might include written demands for the inspection and production of documents, pre-trial depositions of potential witnesses, undertaking an examination of the…

For a variety or reasons, police and crime lab workers sometimes cheat. Often, it is to save time or money. Other times, neglect or sloppiness is the problem. Sometimes, police officers embellish, exaggerate, or just plain lie. This criminal misconduct overshadows and taints the State’s “forensic” test results that are offered against you. Your skilled…

Defenses related to the credibility of the prosecution’s blood testing evidence. Before a blood test result may be admitted into evidence against you by a trial judge, the prosecutor must be able to cross several “hurdles” that your defense lawyer may raise. At each point in the prosecutor’s offer of proof that the blood test…

Defenses related to the admissibility of the prosecution’s blood testing evidence. For a blood test to be admissible as evidence, the prosecutor has to demonstrate the reliability of the test. This might require putting forth various witnesses. For the results of the State’s test to be admissible, the State must show that it was performed…

Challenges to the officer’s ability and experience in determining an impaired driver from an unimpaired driver. Certainly, a law enforcement officer with years of experience conducting DUI-DWI investigations, and with advanced extensive training in DUI- DWI evaluations, is much more likely to be able to distinguish an impaired driver from a driver who is unimpaired…

Challenges to use of improper and non-standardized field sobriety evaluations. It is highly likely that the police officer who stopped you, or found you behind the wheel in your stationary car, administered field sobriety tests to you before he or she arrested you. These evaluations can include a wide variety of agility exercises, mental acuity…

Defenses relating to exculpatory lost video evidence. In some DUI-DWI arrests, the arresting officer will have a videotape recording of all or part of the roadside conversation, field evaluations and chronology of the arrest process. If any law enforcement officer had a working camera at the arrest location, his or her department likely had in…

Defenses related to the failure of the police to comply with the requirements of the Florida implied consent statute. Once you have been arrested for DUI-DWI, the police officer making the arrest must inform you of specific rights under state law relating to your obligation to take a state-administered test of your blood, breath or…