Not Guilty/Complete Acquittal at Jury Trial – DUI & DWI (.111 BAC) – State v. Ms. H (DMC No. 15700) – Mar 28, 2019 – Chandler City Court (Case No. 18-Z323921): A civilian witness was traveling along South Tamarron Way in Chandler, Arizona when he saw a vehicle hit a pole after spinning out of control, raising a large cloud of dust. By the time the civilian witness had come back to the scene, he had found Ms. H’s car empty with the door open. When Officer Barker of the Chandler Police Department arrived, he interviewed the civilian witness. The civilian witness did not see who was driving the car, and didn’t even know if the driver was a male or female.
As the Officer was finishing up, a gentleman came back to the scene with Ms. H. This gentleman was Ms. H’s father. Both had made statements to the officer that Ms. H was having shifting issues with her car, and that it had spun out of control. The officer observed signs and symptoms of alcohol consumption, and began questioning Ms. H. He ultimately arrested her for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol and having the car accident.
At trial, the civilian witness testified that he did not see who driving the car. In addition, the Officer testified that there were no injuries on Ms. H, or any other evidence that it would indicated that she was actually the driver of the car. In fact, he admitted that the gentleman with her could have been the driver of the car. Ultimately, all of those statements were suppressed due to lack of “Corpus Delicti”. The Prosecutor had no further case and, in essence, they were forced to concede that they would lose the trial. Before the Judge issued a Directive Verdict of Not Guilty, the Prosecutor filed a Motion to Dismiss all charges. Because the jury had been sworn, double jeopardy attached and these charges are now gone forever in regards to Ms. H.