Overcoming a DUI after refusing to take a breathalyzer test
Like most people, experts and people with related experience say, the refusal to take a breathalyzer test is an automatic loss of license in most, if not all, states in the United States. In these states there is a requirement that, knowingly or unknowingly, you agree to when you register a license application.
This requirement is known as the state of “implied consent”. In this statement of each applicant states that he or she is going to take a breathalyzer test if lawfully arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or anything else that could be ingestible and debilitating. The statement also specifies that the applicant recognizes that the refusal to this test, breath or chemistry, involves the automatic penalty of loss of license points and possible loss of license.
As for the situation described by an individual and written by the arresting officer, there are a number of things here that are evidence against the person. Open bottles of beer in beer bottles still in the vehicle cabin. He told the officer he had drunk a few beers a few hours before, with some friends.
The declaration of the person arresting officer who apparently fell asleep at the wheel and hit a sign that pierced the gas tank is quite revealing. No explosion, thankfully.. After he told to the officer, but not aloud and said he did not know he had to count aloud. He requested that a lawyer be present during the taking of the breath test, and the officer reported that the accused refused to take the test.
Falling asleep at the wheel – is driving dangerously. Admit having taken a few beers and having open bottles in the cabin – this is evidence, circumstantial but strong. Off the road causing damage – this is possibly imprudent reckless, according to some experts. Other experts say that counting silently, the rejection of testing seems somewhat belligerent and uncooperative stance, all this goes against the defendant.
The best chance to avoid a DUI conviction in the above situation seems to be a jury trial. The negative test and loss of license is under the DMV, a civil matter. This can only be reversed if the arresting officer had no reason to apply the test. Reasonable people can be certainly agreed that the officer had every reason to request the test.
As in any trial, the prosecutor has the burden of proving beyond doubt that the accused is guilty of driving under the influence and must be condemned. Many experts agree that in most DUI cases have only circumstantial evidence collected by the agent on the scene to be used in a trial of this kind. After that, it is up to the jury to decide.