The Defendant was driving on Lakeworth Road without his headlights on. The officer paced the vehicle traveling 53 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone. The Defendant’s vehicle then began to swerve within its lane. After initiating a traffic stop, the Officer noticed that the Defendant’s breath smelled like alcohol and his eyes were glassy, red and bloodshot. His movements were slow and he had difficulty completing thoughts or sentences. While standing, he would stumble to the left or right. After each question posed by the officer, the Defendant would request that it be repeated since he was “unable to focus on what was being said”. While walking to the parking lot to do the roadside exercises, he stumbled several times and slowed to catch his balance. He spontaneously stated that he “came from McKenna’s Bar and only had 4 beers”. His speech was slow and deliberate. He performed poorly on roadside exercises and was arrested for DUI. He stopped the one leg stand and said he just couldn’t do it and repeated a letter in the alphabet while singing it instead of saying it slowly. At the Breath Facility, he gave two samples of his breath which yielded results of .055 and .059. He was questioned about his consumption of alcohol at the breath facility and he responded by stating that he “was no longer under the influence”. The Firm contacted the State Attorney’s Office pre-filing to attempt to stop the charge of DUI from being filed against the Defendant. After speaking with the State of Florida, the Firm was able to convince them that the case could not be proven beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt and the State declined to file the charges.
DUI & Criminal Division
