Protecting Your Rights in Utah DUI Arrest Cases

Few drivers understand that a drunk driving arrest puts into motion the same constitutional protections that any other defendant enjoys in the American criminal justice system. You have the right against self-incrimination, the right to consult with an attorney, and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. At the Druyon Law Offices, we know how to examine your case to develop the strongest possible DUI defense based on the facts of your traffic stop, field sobriety tests, and blood or breath tests. Contact us for a free consultation about your situation.

Traffic Stops - Only rarely will a law enforcement officer actually see a driver consume several drinks, start up the car, and drive intoxicated. Many times officers make assumptions based on the fact that a driver looks suspicious because she is pulling out of a restaurant or nightclub, or driving at an odd hour of the night. But suspicions do not justify an intrusion of your constitutionally protected right to be free from an unreasonable seizure of your person. An officer must have a reasonable articulable suspicion that the driver has violated the law in order to justify a traffic stop. If we can show that there was no reasonable suspicion, we have a strong chance of getting the charges against you dismissed.

Scope of the Stop - Even if the officer has stopped you for a valid reason, he cannot just ask you to step out of the vehicle and conduct field sobriety tests without additional evidence that you are driving under the influence. And he cannot ask you questions beyond the scope of the initial stop unless he has evidence of other criminal activity. It is not even enough if the officer hears you admit that you have "had a couple of beers earlier in the night" because it is not illegal to drink and drive-it is only illegal to either drink to the point you are over the legal limit of .08, or to have been drinking to the point you are cannot safely operate your vehicle due to the alcohol. Thus, unless the officer has additional evidence of impairment, apart from the reason for the traffic stop, he cannot ask you additional questions or ask you to perform field sobriety tests without violating your constitutional rights. Typical this additional evidence includes the officer's observation of a "strong odor of alcohol", "slurred speech", inability to locate driver license and registration information, incoherence, inconsistent answers to questions the officer poses, etc. If the officer has this evidence then he can ask you to step out of the vehicle to perform field sobriety tests.

Field Sobriety Tests-- The purpose of having a driver perform field sobriety tests is to gather additional evidence that the driver is actually driving drunk in order to justify asking the driver to submit to a chemical test. The police officer's Holy Grail is to gather chemical evidence that you are over the legal limit. If the officer can obtain either a breath or blood sample that shows you are over the legal limit, then the chances of getting you off of a DUI charge becomes very difficult. But in order for the officer to obtain this chemical evidence he must have probable cause to believe the driver is under the influence of alcohol to the point he cannot safely operate his vehicle. This is the purpose of conducting field sobriety tests: to form this "probable cause" to arrest. Once they arrest then they can ask the driver to submit to a chemical test without running into Constitutional problems.

Many times officers will hope that failed tests will make up for the driver not having a real driving pattern. Officers may pre-judge a driver's condition because they were driving next to a bar late at night and the assumption is the driver is drunk. It is unfair to form a judgment in this regard without gathering objective evidence first. Often times an officer will tailor the police reports to justify the conclusion they formed that was based on a mere suspicion, although there was no real evidence to justify that conclusion. In other instances the officer does not follow all of the standardized procedures for conducting the field sobriety tests, or deviate by creating their own version of the test, or even omit essential steps to save time. If any of these are done the integrity of the tests are severely compromised and the driver is improperly labeled a drunk.

We ensure that the officer conducting the tests has been certified and recertified, if applicable, that the tests were conducted fairly, according to the standards established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA"), that the officer gave instructions and demonstrations of these tests, and that any "clues of impairment" noted by the officer were not actually caused by a legitimate medical condition that could have affected your ability to successfully perform these tests. And even if the NHTSA procedures were followed, Mr. Druyon has a proven record of showing how many of the "clues" of impairment the officer noted are not due to impairment, but due to other cause such as lack of coordination, injury, weather condition, etc.

Blood Tests, Breath Tests or Urine Tests - As indicated above, the most damaging evidence against a driver in a DUI case is the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reading that results from a test of your blood, breath or urine. Ordinarily, the driver must be placed under arrest before they are asked to provide a chemical sample of the arresting officer's choice. Even if the driver shows a BAC of .08 or higher, they can defeat the charge by showing that the technician didn't check your mouth prior to having you blow into the machine, or that he wasn't certified to operate the machine, or that the testing device wasn't properly maintained, or the sample wasn't correctly stored or protected from tampering.

Bountiful DUI defense lawyer Sean Druyon knows how to find and attack the weak spots at any stage of a drunk driving traffic stop or blood alcohol test. Whether you are a first offender, a repeat offender, a college student, or a juvenile charged with underage drinking, he can use his experience to your advantage in negotiations with the prosecution or at trial.

For a free consultation about our law firm's ability to protect your rights in any Utah DUI prosecution, contact Druyon Law Offices in Bountiful.