DUI 10min after 1st beer

[head1999]

State College, PA
I started sipping my first beer at 1:15am with a NYT crossword. The problem is that I drank a shot and a beer a minute after the first at 2:05 and literally ran out the door. I drove a few hundred feet w/o my headlights (well lit downtown) when I got pulled over at 2:10 and wasn't worried in the slightest about DUI mainly because I knew that my BAC couldn't even be over .04. Everything was still in my stomach except 1/2-3/4 of the first beer. After telling her the absolute truth about when and how much I had consumed and that I was only driving 5 more blocks the officer decided to initiate the RST. I immediately and politely refused to take it and asked instead for the breathalyzer . She flat out refused the breathalyzer. We both argued adamantly for 10 minutes until I had resigned myself to the fact that I was getting railed. I finally took the breathalyzer 50min later when I was .10 and blood another hour later at .13. My question is am I required to take the RST and why wouldn't she want to skip it and go to the breathalyzer unless she believed me and wanted to delay it just to put a notch on her belt.

Signed;
MADD and sober

[john123456]

Originally Posted by head1999

State College, PA
I started sipping my first beer at 1:15am with a NYT crossword. The problem is that I drank a shot and a beer a minute after the first at 2:05 and literally ran out the door. I drove a few hundred feet w/o my headlights (well lit downtown) when I got pulled over at 2:10 and wasn't worried in the slightest about DUI mainly because I knew that my BAC couldn't even be over .04. Everything was still in my stomach except 1/2-3/4 of the first beer. After telling her the absolute truth about when and how much I had consumed and that I was only driving 5 more blocks the officer decided to initiate the RST. I immediately and politely refused to take it and asked instead for the breathalyzer . She flat out refused the breathalyzer. We both argued adamantly for 10 minutes until I had resigned myself to the fact that I was getting railed. I finally took the breathalyzer 50min later when I was .10 and blood another hour later at .13. My question is am I required to take the RST and why wouldn't she want to skip it and go to the breathalyzer unless she believed me and wanted to delay it just to put a notch on her belt.

Signed;
MADD and sober

You HAVE to be kidding!

[sukharev]

He drank a shot in between... Bad idea - goes right through your gut when you have beer with it. And, of course, after the second beer, who counts

[BigMistakeFl]

"Everything was still in my stomach except 1/2-3/4 of the first beer"

I used to think that's how it worked too. However, much of the alcohol is absorbed right there in the stomach. You do not have to fully digest it for the stuff to enter your bloodstream.

[head1999]

I ran a tab so proving the amount I drank and when is not difficult. The two beers were Victory Hopdevil IPA(6.5%?) and they were 16oz. What I posted is correct to within minutes. All three drinks were finished 5min before starting the vehicle. If you read again what I posted the question posed is; am I required to take a roadside sobriety test or can I decline and go straight to the breathalizer? I have plenty of credible witnesses to the fact that I didn't have a drink before 1:15am. Also, the shortest amount of time for an alcoholic beverage to reach the blood, that I have seen, is 30min, many say 1hr. By use of retrograde extrapolation my BAC at the time of the stop was under .04. That is still not in question but again thank you for your judgement. I want to know why I can't decline the subjective roadside test and go directly to the more scientific breathalyzer. An even better Q is why wouldn't the officer want to do that unless she believed me and knew that she had to keep me there for 45min until enough of the alcohol was absorbed for her to get the bust?

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by head1999

I ran a tab so proving the amount I drank and when is not difficult. The two beers were Victory Hopdevil IPA(6.5%?) and they were 16oz. What I posted is correct to within minutes. All three drinks were finished 5min before starting the vehicle. If you read again what I posted the question posed is; am I required to take a roadside sobriety test or can I decline and go straight to the breathalizer? I have plenty of credible witnesses to the fact that I didn't have a drink before 1:15am. Also, the shortest amount of time for an alcoholic beverage to reach the blood, that I have seen, is 30min, many say 1hr. By use of retrograde extrapolation my BAC at the time of the stop was under .04. That is still not in question but again thank you for your judgement. I want to know why I can't decline the subjective roadside test and go directly to the more scientific breathalyzer. An even better Q is why wouldn't the officer want to do that unless she believed me and knew that she had to keep me there for 45min until enough of the alcohol was absorbed for her to get the bust?

Q: If you read again what I posted the question posed is; am I required to take a roadside sobriety test....?

A: No.


Q: or can I decline and go straight to the breathalizer?

A: No.


Q: I want to know why I can't decline the subjective roadside test and go directly to the more scientific breathalyzer.

A: Because roadside tests are not allowed as evidence of guilt; only of probable cause (which could also be found in many other ways).

[giggle50]

Last poster is right, roadside tests results are used for probable cause. You can refuse anything you want, but most states have inacted severe penalties for refusing the prelim breath test.

Most prelim breath test results aren't admissible anyway. Most [URL=http://traffic.legalhelponline.org/category/dui/]preliminary breath test results[/URL] are wildly inaccurate. Don't be a dumb ass twice, get a lawyer.

[outonbail]

Am I understanding this right? Your defense isn't over how much you had to drink, but rather how fast you drank it? Or, after you quickly consumed enough alcohol to become legally intoxicated, you swiftly jumped into your vehicle, where again, hurrying to get on the road you didn't even bother to
take the time to turn your lights on, because this whole flight of the bumble bee course of action was so you could make it home before the alcohol had a chance to impair your ability to drive safely? Had it not been for the officer who stopped your blacked out vehicle and foiled your plan to not be driving when you "came on" to the alcohol, you would have broken no laws?

That's too funny,,,, probably one of the more amazing stories I've ever heard as far as an excuse for driving drunk,,,,,, Needless to say I don't believe a word of it and I have a feeling the Judge will not be too impressed either.

Good luck

[Kane]

I'm not much of a beer drinker, but from my understanding they're normally about 3%. Also, I believe 12 oz is the standard size, not 16. So, if you had two double-strength over-sized beers, that's about 5-6 normal drinks. Plus a shot, puts you at 6-7. That's about .10 -.14, for a normal size guy.

As for the RST's (Roadside Sobriety Tests?), you don't have to take them. As for the officer, RSTs (or FSTs, as they're called here) are part of their training. It's one way of getting the evidence they need to convict you. Without the tests, it's harder to convict you. Therefore, officers try to get you to take the tests. Because that's their job: to gather evidence the state uses to convict you. It wasn't conspiracy, it was just an officer doing her job.

If you weren't drunk when you were driving, then you aren't guilty. It doesn't matter if you were drunk an hour later at the police station. That's not a crime (well, its not DWI, at least).

And you're right. Alcohol concentration in the blood begins rising soon after you start to drink, reaches a plateau, and then begins to fall.

Prosecutors use retrograde analysis to prove that people who blew under the limit were actually drunk when they were driving. You're entitled to use it to prove that you weren't drunk when you were driving.

Ask lawyers in your area what they know about retrograde analysis, and be sure to ask what their trial fees are. Also, you're probably going to need an expert witness.

[BL]

1 shot = 1 beer , each take about one hr. to leave your system .

You got a DUI .... Get a Lawyer as advised ..