What factor is most detirminative in a DUI arrest?

June 24, 2008

     When I asked that question to friends and family answers varied from “what kind of beverage you had consumed” to the more “what area of town you were in” and “what kind of car do you drive”?  None of these are the answer , surprisingly neither is “whether you were intoxicated or not”. The accurate answer is the individual differences of the arresting officer. This blog has often stated that DUI is the only crime that you can be convicted solely on the opinion of the arresting officer. Lawrence Taylor, a prominent DUI attorney in California has read the latest Department of Transportation Report that appears to confirms this. Taylor writes that variables affecting officer arrests include the age of the officer, whether the officer drinks or not, the officer’s ability to estimate the effect of alcohol, what the officer’s typical duty assignment is, whether the officer is about to go off shift, if the weather is good, whether the suspect is of the same or a different race, the age of the suspect, and the gender of the suspect. None of these variables appear in any statute or law but any of these variables could mean the difference in a non-stop and a costly and painful DUI charge. These factors should not be the deciding factors in your or any other DUI trial.

 

For Mr. Taylor’s full post please follow the link.

http://www.duiblog.com/2008/06/12/the-unknown-variable-2/

Posted by lawyer | Filed Under Memphis DUI 

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