terrapinfan24
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Maryland
Last night I had 7 beers over the course for four hours (245lb male). Had a designated driver back home and then ran out with roomate to buy some claritin a short distance away at CVS. Ended up snagged in a sobriety checkpoint.
I had three field tests-- pen light, 9 steps on a line, and holding foot in the air counting to one-one thousand 30. Evidently, I "failed" the light test, but not the other two. During the course of this test, I asked the officer to either take off my glasses (small frame so the light would go from clear to blurry as it moved passed the rim of my glasses) and he said no and I also requested it be done somewhere without the high beams from the squad cars in the corner of my eyes and he said no. Could either of these have effected my performance?
I asked if I could call an attorney a few times and was told no (at diff stages). Ended up at their headquarters without ever being arrested (note I was detained in cuffs for about 15 minutes) and there I took the breathalyzer. The first time the testing officer said good job because the machine beeped and then he said, "****, it messed up. We need to wait two minutes and try again." The lower of the following two (the one admissible in court as they explained it) had me at .07. In MD, DWI's are from .7-.8. However, I do not think this machine was accurate at all. At this point it was at least 4 1/2 hours after the first beer and an hour and a half (that's a conservative estimate) from the last beer. By my math, my BAC should have been .05-.06, at most. My question then is do I have legal footing to stand on in terms of challenging the results? Particularly if I have witnesses to verify exactly how many beers I had?
Lastly, the cops charged me with both a DUI and a DWI. The cops said, well we have to charge you with the DUI since we brought you in, but the prosecutor will drop that since you registered a .07 and Maryland's per se law is .08. Were they being honest? If so, why'd they charge me with it when I clearly wasn't .08? I've never been arrested/detained/etc-- worst I've ever had is a 13 mph speeding ticket.
I am in the process of hiring an attorney, but was wondering about outside opinions about this. Do I have a decent chance of getting the DWI dismissed (in MD that's the lower of the two charges)? Do prosecutors ever allow someone to plea down to say reckless or neglient driving? And if my case were dismissed, can I have the 'detaining' expunged from my record?
Thank you for your advice!
Last night I had 7 beers over the course for four hours (245lb male). Had a designated driver back home and then ran out with roomate to buy some claritin a short distance away at CVS. Ended up snagged in a sobriety checkpoint.
I had three field tests-- pen light, 9 steps on a line, and holding foot in the air counting to one-one thousand 30. Evidently, I "failed" the light test, but not the other two. During the course of this test, I asked the officer to either take off my glasses (small frame so the light would go from clear to blurry as it moved passed the rim of my glasses) and he said no and I also requested it be done somewhere without the high beams from the squad cars in the corner of my eyes and he said no. Could either of these have effected my performance?
I asked if I could call an attorney a few times and was told no (at diff stages). Ended up at their headquarters without ever being arrested (note I was detained in cuffs for about 15 minutes) and there I took the breathalyzer. The first time the testing officer said good job because the machine beeped and then he said, "****, it messed up. We need to wait two minutes and try again." The lower of the following two (the one admissible in court as they explained it) had me at .07. In MD, DWI's are from .7-.8. However, I do not think this machine was accurate at all. At this point it was at least 4 1/2 hours after the first beer and an hour and a half (that's a conservative estimate) from the last beer. By my math, my BAC should have been .05-.06, at most. My question then is do I have legal footing to stand on in terms of challenging the results? Particularly if I have witnesses to verify exactly how many beers I had?
Lastly, the cops charged me with both a DUI and a DWI. The cops said, well we have to charge you with the DUI since we brought you in, but the prosecutor will drop that since you registered a .07 and Maryland's per se law is .08. Were they being honest? If so, why'd they charge me with it when I clearly wasn't .08? I've never been arrested/detained/etc-- worst I've ever had is a 13 mph speeding ticket.
I am in the process of hiring an attorney, but was wondering about outside opinions about this. Do I have a decent chance of getting the DWI dismissed (in MD that's the lower of the two charges)? Do prosecutors ever allow someone to plea down to say reckless or neglient driving? And if my case were dismissed, can I have the 'detaining' expunged from my record?
Thank you for your advice!
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