Driving Under the Influence (DUI Defense) Charges

D efense Attorney David P. Sullivan will seek to dismantle the prosecution’s case with the available facts at his disposal. Many DUI cases can be defended depending upon the lack of justification the police officer had in stopping your vehicle, the officer’s lack of proper legal procedures, and convincing the court to render the prosecution’s evidence as ‘inadmissible’ (unusable in the prosecution’s argument) if the police obtained it questionably. The most powerful DUI defense David P. Sullivan could get you would be one in which the prosecution is left with no real case (having breathalyze results and the arresting officer’s testimony thrown out) which would give you a total dropping of the DUI charges.

A common defense technique used in Criminal Defense of DUI charges could be attacking the arresting officer’s reasoning for pulling you over in the first place: dismantling the officer’s initial ‘probable cause’.  Another point to focus on is the reading of the Miranda Warning (“You have the right to remain silent…”) issued to you upon your arrest: if it was incorrectly issued, you may be able to have evidence ruled inadmissible.

The testimony of the police can also be critical in determining a good DUI defense.  Evidence that the defense can bring that challenge the officer’s testimony can be about the way you were driving at the time, performance of field sobriety tests, and the order of events the officer states.  Bringing in other witnesses can greatly impact the evaluation of your DUI defense case.  Witnesses for the defense could testify to examples of your apparent sobriety, claiming they observed you not drinking, or even explaining that the reason cited for being pulled over (running a stop sign, etc) was attributed to a conversation or road hazard and not because of inebriation.

The defendant’s behavior and appearance could be cited by the arresting officer as indicators of inebriation, such as poor performance on field sobriety tests, bloodshot eyes, slurred speech.  A great defense attorney like David P. Sullivan will scrutinize the officer’s recollection of these and find convincing, alternate reasons such as physical impairments, lack of sleep, medications, or confusing directions from the officer.

If a blood alcohol content (BAC) level is taken and determined to be beyond the legal limit this can become a critical part of the prosecution’s case but it can be challenged in terms of accuracy; and when handled by a great defense attorney with proper circumstances, can be thrown out of the case altogether.

Many jurisdictions will now get a search warrant to take a blood sample from the suspect.  DUI Defense Attorney David P. Sullivan has great experience in handling blood chemical analysis and can make blood chemical experts available that can serve as expert witnesses in your defense. Challenging a DUI charge that has an above-the-limit blood alcohol content component can greatly benefit from this kind of legal expertise, forensic chemical or expert testimony, and technical know-how.  A way to attack a BAC test could be foods and medications taken within a certain period preceding the test that could reasonably trigger a false reading of an above-the-limit BAC.