Facts:
My client was driving his friend home and allegedly took too wide of a turn. A patrol deputy from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office saw the wide turn and started following him. As my client drove, the deputy said that his tires touched the white line twice. The deputy stopped him.
My client stated that he was taking his friend home and that they had consumed a few drinks at his home beforehand. The deputy asked him out of the car and had him perform field sobriety tests. He was then arrested for DUI and taken to the Pinellas County Jail and asked to blow. His breath test results were 0.6, which is under the legal limit. The deputy then asked for a urine sample, which my client provided. Even though he had blown under the legal limit, he was still arrested and charged with DUI.
The Case:
My client hired me to defend him in the case. The first thing that I wanted to see were the results of the urine screen. As my client had told me, it came back clean!
I then watched the video of the incident and wrote a letter to the prosecutor pointing out all of the strange circumstances in the case. There was no video of my client making a wide turn, his car may have touched a white line, but that wasn’t a traffic violation, and he blew under the legal limit. Additionally, my client had never been in trouble before. I asked for the case to be dismissed.
The Result:
The prosecutor agreed to reduce the charge to careless driving, which is a civil citation. And, so that my client could seal his record, they agreed to withhold adjudication. So, he got no points, no conviction, and only had to pay a fine of $116!
It was a great result and he is thrilled.