My client was involved in a motorcycle accident resulting in his bike an body lying on someone’s front lawn when discovered by the homeowner.  When police arrived, the client was being treated be EMTs and was transported to the local hospital where blood was taken “for medical purposes.”   The blood alcohol level was .19.

The police responded to the hospital and questioned my client about his odor of alcohol, where he had been drinking and how much he had to drink.  As a result of the blood alcohol levels and my clients statements, the client was charged with his second offense OUI.

At trial I did not question the blood alcohol level but merely relied upon the lack of evidence that my client was driving the motorcycle.  Despite the officer’s testimony that he saw my client laying 10 feet from the crashed bike, he admitted that he never directly asked if my client was driving.  Oops.  Was my client a passenger?   

After trial the police officer, prosecutor and judge admitted that they never saw it coming.  It takes an experienced eye to see all the issues.  Another example of why it is critical to make the government prove their case.

In a case where my client was stopped for speeding and a marked lane violation on the Mass Pike, the trooper testified that my client could not complete the alphabet and had difficulty counting backwards.  The trooper also claimed that my client could not stand on one leg or walk heel to toe as instructed.  Despite a breath test of .09, the client was found NOT GUILTY.

This case was the classic example of a trooper losing credibility by trying to make more of the facts than reality allows.  (also known as distortion or exageration).  I still do not understand how my client “swayed so much during the heel/toe test that he almost lost his balance” yet his feet never stepped of the line.  Thats a pretty good trick.  Equally confusing was the officers insistance that my client’s foot never left its original position during the one legged stand yet it moved throughout the test. 

As long as officers insist on telling jurors that a driver’s speech was slurred after hearing a stranger speak a single sentence and that a driver was unsteady after seeing this stranger walk only six steps, they will continue to make my job easier.