Our client was involved in a motor vehicle accident in which his car allegedly collided with that of an off duty Sheriff’s Office 911 dispatcher. During the aftermath of the accident, our client allegedly got into a verbal altercation with witnesses and fled the scene. Officers alleged that when our client returned to the scene, he struck the vehicle of a Police Department service aide, who was on the scene completing the initial crash investigation. Witnesses on the scene alleged that our client appeared to be impaired by an unknown substance and that he was unsteady on his feet and slurred his speech. Officers arrested our client for Driving Under the Influence and transported him to the Breath Alcohol Testing center, where he performed field sobriety exercises on video for courtroom presentation. Despite the fact that our client informed officers that he was permanently disabled, officers did not permit our client to use his cane while performing the exercises and failed to offer him alternative exercises appropriate for someone with a permanent disability. Our client provided a breath sample that showed he had no alcohol in his system. Determined to pin this case on our client, officers ordered him to provide a urine sample, which tested positive for his prescription medication for arthritis and a seizure disorder as well as Benadryl. The Ticket Clinic’s attorney was able to convince the prosecutors that because Benadryl is not a controlled substance and the controlled substances that were in his system would stay in his system for 2-3 days after consumption, they would be unable to eliminate Benadryl as the sole cause of impairment to show that our client was impaired by a controlled substance at the time of the crash. Our attorney set the case for trial and dared the State to prove its allegations. The State Attorney’s office was forced to drop the three separate DUI charges and our client received a withhold of adjudication on the reduced charge of Reckless Driving, which will allow him to apply to FDLE to have this case sealed and expunged from his record.
DUI & Criminal Division
