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DWI dismissal?

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MattMox

Junior Member
I have a friend who works for the sheriffs office in one of the counties in Fort Worth. He told me that his Lieutenant on the night shift has been patrolling the local night clubs and bars pulling over people that leave the establishments late at night. If he thinks they’re intoxicated he then orders one of his subordinates to come to the scene and do the arrest and report.
I was curious if this is considered legal? Can a good DWI defense attorney have the case dismissed because the arresting officer, the subordinate who showed up after the original stop, did not witness the suspect driving drunk? The first person who pulled him/her over should be the one making the report and not someone who showed up later right?
 


CdwJava

Senior Member
An arrest is based upon probable cause after investigation. I can only presume that the lieutenant initiating the stop produces a supplemental narrative to justify the detention, or, the investigating and arresting officer is recording the lieutenant's statement in the report. The arrest would be based upon the investigating officer's observations and conclusions.

I used to have a sergeant that did that very thing. When I was a sergeant, I did the same thing as well. It's not a huge issue so long as the reasonable suspicion for the stop was documented.
 

CavemanLawyer

Senior Member
No there is absolutely nothing requiring the same officer that did initial stop to do the rest of the DWI investigation. This is a very common practice to call in an officer that is more qualified to do the standardized field sobriety tests after the initial stop. A DWI arrest takes longer than most arrests because there is additional paperwork to be submitted to DPS and also because it typically results in an attempt to take a chemical test (breath or blood) which can add hours to the process. Some officers love doing DWI's and some hate them. Some officers also are needed on the street more, like K9 units. So DWI investigations are frequently taken over by officers that love DWIs to relieve others to get back to patrol. In fact it is common to even pass the investigation off to a different agency altogether. There are many officers on patrol that are not certified to do SFSTs so if they do a stop that looks like a DWI then the standard procedure is to call DPS and have a trooper come and complete the investigation.

The officer that did the stop would need to come testify in trial or in a motion to suppress but there is nothing about this that impacts the integrity of the case.
 
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FlyingRon

Senior Member
Cops are not required to be sporting. Hanging around bars looking for drunk drivers may be what we call shooting fish in a barrel, but is legal. All the officer who peforms the stop needs is a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. Perhaps just because you came out of a bar isn't sufficient, but usually it doesn't take much to find a violation. Lots of drunks usually roll the stop entering the highway or something along those lines, giving a ruse for the stop. Then as the preceding posters are saying, if there's indication that they are intoxicated a furhter investigation and arrest may legally ensue.

The defense attorney will try to challenge each aspect: whether there was valid cause for the intial stop, whether the subsequent investigation merits detaining the person furhter, and whether there was sufficient probable cause for the arrest, and whether the sum of the evidence presented by the state at trial justifies the charge.
 

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