Not Guilty/Complete Acquittal at Jury Trial – DUI and DWI (.088 BAC) – State v. Mr. M (DMC No. 16782) – JUN 17, 2021 – (Phoenix City Court No. 5354541).
Mr. M had gone to dinner with his wife at Durant’s restaurant, where they ate a full meal and had a bottle of wine. He then went with his wife to watch the Bob Dylan concert in downtown Phoenix. On the way home, an Officer claimed at an off-ramp on theI-17 that Mr. M had run through a red light. He subsequently pulled Mr. M over, and took him to a DUI Task Force van.
The only test he gave in the field was the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (i.e., the eye test). During that test he found only four out of the six cues necessary to determine if somebody was impaired by alcohol. In addition, Mr. M was 61 years old and had various physical problems. The Officer stated that the reason he only gave the HGN test was that they were near heavy traffic on the freeway. He also tried to use that as an excuse as to why he did not find all cues during the eye test.
In front of a Jury, we were able to demonstrate all of these flaws, along with having proof that Mr. M had drank only half a bottle of wine, which would not have allowed for his blood alcohol content to be above the legal limit. We discredited the State’s BAC test of .088, and the Jury came back Not Guilty on all charges. This was very important, because Mr. M worked at a manufacturing plant that had various government contracts, and required all employees to have clean criminal records.
