Can My DUI Charge be Dropped in Couer d’Alene?

October 17, 2017

If you’re arrested for a Coeur d’Alene DUI, your presiding judge isn’t going to dismiss the charge. That judge might find you not guilty in a bench trial, but only the prosecutor in his or her discretion can dismiss or reduce the DUI charge. What comes to issue is that your attorney must prevail upon the prosecutor to dismiss or reduce the charge. That’s done by convincing him or her of the problems of proving the case against you. No two DUI cases are the same, but here’s how we might convince a prosecutor to dismiss or reduce a pending DUI case against you.

The traffic stop
You might have submitted to breath or blood testing and had a result well over the legal limit, but the prosecution might not be able to prove its case against you if the police officer who stopped you didn’t have a reason to make the stop. A police officer can’t just stop you to see why you’re on the road at midnight or any other time of the day or night either. He or she must have a reasonable belief that a traffic or other law has been or is being committed. If a judge determines that there wasn’t a reason for stopping a DUI defendant, any evidence after that tending to prove intoxication is suppressed. The prosecutor has no evidence to prove the DUI case.

Breath testing issues
Idaho law requires breath testing machines to be properly calibrated and accurate. If the machine isn’t properly calibrated, a subject’s blood alcohol level can read higher than what it actually might be. This occurred about 400 times in Washington, D.C. Blood alcohol testing machines were reading alcohol levels at 20 percent higher than they actually were. Radio signals might also affect testing machines. Calibration and certification of testing should always be looked into by the defense.

Blood testing issues
The general rule is that police need a search warrant to obtain a blood sample from a person in order to determine his or her blood alcohol content. Without an emergency, a warrantless blood test is likely to be suppressed as an illegal search and seizure. Blood tests are usually highly reliable, but strict procedures for drawing, transferring and preserving blood must be followed. We force prosecutors to prove that there was no deviation from any of the required procedures. If police and medical personnel deviated from the required procedures, the test results might be suppressed.

Contact a Coeur d’Alene DUI Lawyer today

Remember that the prosecution must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Different defenses might apply to different sets of facts, and the best defenses might be raised long before a trial date. That’s when a judge might take the ball from the prosecution’s hands, and a prosecutor becomes incredibly more reasonable. Sure, there are times when an outright dismissal of a DUI charge might occur. At other times, the charge might be reduced to something like inattentive driving. Our goal is to get the best possible disposition for you based on the facts of your case. If you’ve been arrested for a DUI in or around Coeur d’Alene, you can contact us for a free consultation and case evaluation. We’ll listen to your side of the story carefully, and then we can discuss how we might approach defending your DUI charge.

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