DISCLAIMER: The results are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each of the clients’ cases and should not be used to form an expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client’s case.
The cop admitted that he never saw Jeff driving the vehicle. The judge then threw the case out and dismissed the charges. Jeff was free to go.
Jeff was afraid of losing his driver’s license, of facing jail time, and having a DUI on his record.
At 7:00 in the morning, someone called the police to report that a car was swerving in and out of lanes, and driving on a flat tire. The caller identified that a black male was driving the vehicle. When the cop arrived at the reported location in Tamarac, he found a car pulled over, with a black man standing outside of the vehicle. The man was Jeff N. The cop asked Jeff what he was doing, and Jeff told him he thought one of the tires on his car had gone flat. In his police report the cop, who was a former breath technician not very experienced in handling DUI cases, wrote that Jeff had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. He then proceeded to conduct a DUI investigation. After failing the field sobriety exercises, Jeff was arrested and consented to a breath test. He blew a .19 and was taken to jail.
We immediately filed a motion to suppress, as this was an illegal arrest (pursuant to Florida statute 901.15). When the cop arrived Jeff was already outside of his vehicle holding the keys. He was not driving and had not crashed his car. Body camera footage confirmed this. In order to arrest someone for DUI, they must have actual physical control of the vehicle, which was the issue here.
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