Their site and my articles sans my name and info.
http://www.sobriety-checkpoint.net/category/dwi-sobriety-checkpoints/
http://www.sobriety-checkpoint.net/tag/case/
My original articles:
http://www.articlesbase.com/criminal-articles/defeating-the-new-york-dwi-refusal-case-1330173.html
http://www.articlesbase.com/criminal-articles/the-power-of-words-in-dwi-case-1335602.html
Jurors are not stupid. They have the same doubts and concerns as the lawyer looking at the case. If you do not allay their questions openly they will most assuredly be discussing them back in the Jury room.
We as DWI defense lawyers can not look to sweep dirt under rugs and pray that it is never discovered. Everything can be seen from different perspectives. The key with good advocacy is to put yourself in everyone's shoes. Put yourself in the shoes of the juror, put yourself in the shoes of the cop, put yourself in the shoes of the prosecutor, and put your self in the shoes of the judge. Now the case can be seen as a total whole and not a bunch of random pieces or events.
The facts of any DWI case are nothing without context. Someone has to have a viewpoint of that fact.
This is from an actual case. Fact, a driver was pulled over for having headlights that were too bright. The officer in his report made no mention of investigating or asking about the headlights. The motorist only traffic violation was the headlights but no detail or documentation of this fact, just a single ticket plus of course the DWI investigation and subsequent criminal charges.
I demanded a suppression hearing on the stop (was there reasonable suspicion), and the arrest (was there probable cause). My plan of attack was a whole line of questioning, first on the importance of the report and it's detail, then on the fact that my client showed him the dashboard, demonstrated the lights on and lights off controls. The "stop officer" had one goal for this stop (investigate the bright lights) and this sole purpose was never addressed by his investigation/inquiry.
All the DWI criminal charges were dropped. This was with a .15BAC. The outcome was a DWAI (traffic violation) pre-trial. My thoughts for this case were always that jurors would want to know, the judge would want to know THE BIG WHY? If you say the stop was for x why are you not checking x, asking about x, and investigating x?
I was able to listen to my client and get "the story" of this DWI case. His story included the lights where the officer's did not.
btw that Company in California that "borrowed" my content without giving me credit:
Pure One International
3400 West Warner Ave., Unit A
Santa Ana, CA 92704
714-641-1430
fax 714-641-1432
Bytes for All (Website creation/hosting) from someplace overseas.
I really do believe what comes around goes around so God bless them and may they reap the fruits of the seeds they sow.
No comments:
Post a Comment