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.
Ed