Posted on February 02, 2019 in Uncategorized

​The law of driving while intoxicated (DWI) seems like it should be simple and straightforward. It is not. And the U.S. Supreme Court's newfound interest in taking a DWI case shows that the law has been evolving at a rate that requires input from the highest court in the country, once again.

The major developments over the past decade have been the proliferation of implied consent laws that offer law enforcement a way to score a criminal conviction while barely gathering any evidence. These criminalized implied consent laws were actually the reason why the Supreme Court of the United States last dipped its toe into DWI law, in the case of Birchfield v. North Dakota.

Understanding how implied consent laws work, and why it was so controversial when some states criminalized them, is necessary before a discussion of the Birchfield case.

The Role of Implied Consent Laws in the World of DWI

Implied consent laws occupy an important role in the DWI world. When they wrote DWI laws in the 1930s, lawmakers decided that a DWI suspect's blood alcohol content (BAC) would be the Holy Grail of drunk driving evidence – suspects with BAC at or above 0.08% would be deemed "intoxicated" without the need for further evidence.

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 Posted on February 02, 2019 in Uncategorized

One of the more interesting stories in news relating to driving while intoxicated (DWI) in Texas deals with a man who bit off a piece of a police officer's ear during a traffic stop. There is, however, more to the story than first meets the eye.

DWI Suspect Bites Officer's Ear During Traffic Stop

The incident happened late on Friday, February 8, 2019, in Denton, which just over 4 hours north of Houston. According to the initial reports, police pulled over a vehicle that they said was driving erratically and failing to maintain a lane on Interstate 35.

The traffic stop turned into a DWI investigation when the officer claimed to see a small empty vodka bottle inside the car. The driver refused to get out of the car, so police called for backup. When officers tried getting the driver out of the car, he fought back by punching one of them in the face. In the ensuing scuffle, the driver managed to pin an officer to the ground. There, he bit an inch off of the top of the officer's ear.

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 Posted on February 02, 2019 in Uncategorized

The Supreme Court of the United States is going to take another foray into the world of driving while intoxicated (DWI). While the case that they have accepted does not come from Texas, it could have a huge impact on how implied consent laws intersect with your Fourth Amendment rights. The issue is whether a a legislature can, by way of an informed-consent statute, "deem" a class of persons to have consented to a search. In this case Mitchell was unconscious when his blood was drawn. Mitchell's lawyers challenged this search as illegally obtained because he was unconscious at the time and did not consent to the search.

What Happened in State v. Mitchell

The case that the Supreme Court will hear, State v. Mitchell, comes from Wisconsin. In it, police received a tip that someone who appeared drunk had just driven off in a gray van. Later, police stumbled onto the defendant as he was walking along the beach. He was having trouble standing and his speech was slurred. He admitted to drinking and then driving to the beach, but that he had parked his car "because he felt he was too drunk to drive." The gray van was found nearby.

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 Posted on February 02, 2019 in Uncategorized

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to accept a case involving driving while intoxicated (DWI) is a strong indication that it is unhappy with the state of DWI law surrounding blood draws, breath tests, and a suspect's consent to a search. Of particular importance in the current case, State v. Mitchell, is the strong difference between DWI searches that involve a suspect's blood and those that involve a suspect's breath.

New DWI Case Involving Blood Draw

The crucially important fact of State v. Mitchell was that police performed a blood draw on a DWI suspect without his consent. The reason for the lack of consent was simple: the suspect was so lethargic from the alcohol in his system that he could not be woken up. Asleep, he could neither provide a breath sample nor consent to a blood draw for evidence of his blood alcohol content (BAC). So police decided that, while he had not consented to the blood draw, he had also not refused his consent. This a presumptuous decision by police to invade a person's body without their consent.

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 Posted on February 02, 2019 in Uncategorized

The recent firefight between a narcotics squad from the Houston Police Department and suspected drug dealers has led to a war of words as the police union attempts to dodge blame for the incident. The aggressive and dangerous vitriol from the police union, however, only betrays a gung-ho attitude that puts the lie in their claims that they are "only protecting the community."

Drug Bust Goes Wrong: Two Suspects Killed and Five Officers Wounded

The situation began on January 27, 2019, when police followed up on a tip by sending an informant into a house in the Pecan Park neighborhood to buy drugs. When the informant came out with a packet of brown powder and said that it was "boy" – a street name for heroin – police applied for and got a no-knock search warrant for the house to look for evidence of a drug distribution crime.

It is unclear if the police ever confirmed that the substance purchased was heroin or not.

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 Posted on January 01, 2019 in Uncategorized

It's no surprise to anyone that being charged with driving while impaired will lead to a loss of your driving privileges--it's even common knowledge that you could spend time in jail after a conviction. These punishments are obvious and expected. These are referred to as collateral consequences of a DWI conviction.

DWI convictions have additional ramifications that you may not think about, however, and the consequences aren't temporary--they can affect a person throughout his or her life. One such ramification is the requirement to obtain SR-22 insurance. It may seem minimal, but it can carry a hefty price tag for some time to come.

SR-22 Insurance: What is it?

SR-22 insurance is a more common name for a "Financial Responsibility Insurance Certificate," which is a document that verifies a person has liability insurance for his or her vehicle. The insurance is required for drivers who commit certain wrongdoings, like getting in too many car wrecks, or getting too many traffic tickets, or refusing to submit to a blood alcohol test.

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 Posted on January 01, 2019 in Uncategorized

An individual suspected of driving under the influence appeared before a judge on January 23, 2019, following an accident that injured a young child. The driver was arrested after failing field sobriety tests that were performed after the crash. The driver's DWI defense attorney stated that he does not believe the driver was under the influence at the time of the accident.

Field sobriety tests have been used for decades to demonstrate that a person is impaired at the time he or she was pulled over. The tests, however, are often inaccurate, meaning even sober people fail them. Here's an overview of what you should know about these tests.

Problems with Field Sobriety Tests

The Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs) consists of three tests: the horizontal gaze nystagmus, the walk-and-turn, and the one-leg stand. While these tests can be accurate, more often then you may think, the SFSTs prove inaccurate. A seasoned DWI defense attorney will come to battle armed with ways to challenge the test results.

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 Posted on January 01, 2019 in Uncategorized

The Harris County Sheriff's Office's DWI task force began a new initiative to curb the number of drunk drivers on the road. During the first night of this initiative along, officers pulled over dozens of Houston drivers. Reasons for the traffic stops included offenses as minor as a headlight being out and offenses as serious as driving the wrong way down the road. The purpose of the newly-formed task force is to seek and find motorists who may be driving while impaired in the city.

If you are one of the many drivers who has been pulled over and arrested for driving while impaired due to this recent initiative, your attorney may be able to assert a legal defense that could help your case. These officers may try to use simple traffic violations to pull you over, some of which may not be valid. But the officer must have a valid reason for the traffic stop, and without it, you may have a defense if you were charged with an offense, e.g., DWI. For instance, if there was no valid reason, i.e., reasonable suspicion, to pull you over, and you are charged with a crime, the attorney can file a motion to suppress evidence flowing from that unlawful traffic stop. Without that evidence, there may be no case, and the charges may subsequently be dropped.

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 Posted on January 01, 2019 in Uncategorized

A Houston driver was arrested for driving while impaired after driving the wrong way down the Southwest Freeway. Police caught up with the driver at the Kirby exit, where the vehicle was parked in the main lanes of the highway. The driver's doors were locked and he was asleep inside his vehicle. After being woke up and failing a field sobriety test, the man was arrested on suspicion of driving while impaired.

While the example above is a case where police may have investigated a person for DWI lawfully, it is always important to know your rights during a DWI investigation. Here is a reminder on the Fourth Amendment as it pertains to your rights and DWI charges in Texas.

DWI Charges and the Fourth Amendment

Each and every person in the United States is guaranteed certain rights by the United States Constitution. Among these rights are those afforded by the Fourth Amendment, which states that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." When put into effect with respect to driving, the Fourth Amendment protects a person from being pulled over by a law enforcement officer for no valid reason. Instead, an officer must have reasonable suspicion that a traffic violation or other offense has been committed.

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 Posted on January 01, 2019 in Uncategorized

Imagine you are driving home or to work and a Houston police officer pulls you over. You didn't run a red light. You weren't speeding. You used your turn signal to take a left. In order for a police officer in Harris County, Texas, or anywhere in Texas for that matter, to pull you over, they need reasonable suspicion. You may be surprised to learn that someone left an anonymous tip with the police that you drank before you got behind the wheel.

Is an anonymous tip a justifiable reason to suspect that you have been driving while illegally intoxicated in Texas? Yes, according to Navarette v. California, a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision. But there are limits to this liberty and your Harris County DWI defense lawyer will -- or should -- challenge it.

When can Texas Police Use an Anonymous Tip as Reasonable Suspicion?

Thanks to the Fourth Amendment right to be protected against unlawful search and seizure, the police are limited from pulling a person over absent reasonable suspicion that the driver committed some crime. In order for a police officer to respond to an anonymous tip about someone allegedly driving drunk that tip must

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