Client with 4th DWI Arrest Gets No Conviction Probation (SIS)

A client of our firm, M.A., was driving his car in North County in the early morning when he approached a red light. He attempted to apply his breaks but slid into the intersection striking another car that was passing through the intersection. As the police arrived on the scene they observed our client running from his car to check on the driver of the vehicle he struck. As the police attempted to obtain information from M.A. they observed him to have a strong odor of alcohol coming from his breath. As they continued to speak to him they noticed that he was stumbling and swaying and having difficulty maintaining his balance. Furthermore, as the police were gathering information from M.A. his speech was noticeably slurred. As the police attempted to speak to him regarding the accident he was refusing to answer their questions. He became combative with the police and started complaining of chest pains. As our client was being attended to by the medics he was agitated and argumentative with the police. Based on the observations of the police they asked our client to take some field sobriety tests and a portable breath test. Our client refused all of the field sobriety tests and the breath test. The police placed him under arrest for DWI for the fourth time and driving too fast for conditions. M.A. refused to answer any further questions regarding the accident or about what he drank and how much.

M.A. had been arrested 3 previous times for DWI with one case being dismissed and two cases ending in pleas of guilty. Our firm handled the case that was dismissed. Our office was concerned about this case because with his criminal history he could be charged as a persistent DWI offender with a class D Felony DWI. Our firm took an aggressive approach in this case and argued that the police did not have enough evidence in this case to prove that he was intoxicated. We pointed out that our client did not submit to any field sobriety tests and he did not submit to any breath or blood samples. We attacked the credibility of the police officer in this case as he did not write a detailed report. The narrative of the report was only a couple of paragraphs long. The police officer did not put any details into the report regarding how the police reached the conclusion that M.A. was intoxicated.

Our experienced attorneys argued that the probable cause to believe that M.A. was intoxicated was weak. Through our aggressive representation we were able to secure our client a great outcome. After a long battle with the prosecutor, we were able to convince the prosecutor to agree to a suspended imposition sentence (SIS) with two years of bench probation on a class B Misdemeanor. This means that our client with three previous DWI arrests and 2 previous DWI pleas was able to avoid a conviction. He was able to avoid being prosecuted for a felony DWI and he was able to avoid any jail time. The great thing about an SIS is that upon completion of the probationary period our client will not have a DWI on his record for employment purposes.

If you have been arrested for DWI and you are in need of an aggressive attorney to represent you and get the results that you deserve give Sansone & Lauber a call today at 314-863-0500.