GPITW...whatever

[gonores]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been, uh

In jail.

I’ll cut to the chase, basically because I really don’t feel like writing at all. I got picked up for a DUI on Saturday night. I blew a .09 in the field. I had blood work done an hour and a half later. I’m not sure if I will still have a >.08 BAC when the lab tests come in, though I found out yesterday that one’s BAC, at least years ago, is a little bit higher when measured through blood work. Either way, when the final score comes in, it will be close. I had 7 drinks evenly spread out over 5 hours (2 regulation shots of Jager, a Tanq and tonic, and 4 glasses of wine with dinner). Having never done a BAC test before, I always worked off the formula of +.015 for every drink, -.01 for every hour passed….and make it a point not to drive if I was over .06 on my scale and never drive once I hit 10 drinks. I’m 200 lbs with veteran organs processing the booze…I’m not really sure just how crappy my formula is, but I was a good .04 over what I thought I was.

Long story short, I was in a very minor accident that, for all intents and purposes, would be slam-dunk no-fault accident had I been clean…at least according to the accident report of the person I rear-ended. There is a lot to this story, but quite frankly, I don’t feel like doing a thing right now. I’m pretty wrecked, emotionally speaking. On top of everything else, I spent 19 hours in the Clark County Detention Center, including a stint in lockup, orange jumpsuit and everything. The incident did irreparable damage to my view on police in general. I was lied to or misled every [censored] step of the way, causing me to stay at least an extra 7 hours in that hellhole…and I saw plenty worse treatment to others.

I’m not even looking at poker today. I don’t know how updates are going to come along. I’m destroyed. I’m literally going to go look at a wall. I used “I” as the first word in each of the last 5 sentences, and I don’t feel the least bit bad about that. I’m going to go stare at a wall after I post this.

“That sucks” replies are cool, “You suck” replies are cool, but what I’m hoping 2+2 can do for me is give some legal advice from here on out. I’ll check this post from time to time today, but I’m lawyer shopping for the time being.

[Ed Miller]

Let me be the first to say...

That sucks.

[AustinDoug]

Good legal advice to others is: if you have been drinking, never, ever blow. Even if you're confident that you would be below your state's max. The breathalyzer is very unreliable and once it's over the limit, a lawyer is really limited in what they can do for you if you want to take the case forward. If your State automatically suspends your license for 3 months or whatever if you refuse to blow, fine. Most States will give you an occupational license so you can get to work and back during that suspension.

Having the blood work done was/is a good idea. That is a much more reliable test. Gonores, the blood test does not inherently come back higher. However, keep in mind that you blood alcohol can continue to rise and spike for up to 1 - 2 hours after you stop drinking. Thus, you can test higher on a later test than an earlier test.

Drinking formulas are highly unreliable. They don't take in to account such variables as stomach contents and the fact that your body will process alcoholc at varying rates. I think your pre-established stop-loss should be a lot earlier than 10 drinks, no matter how well you handle your alcohol.

I'm sure things seem very bleak right now, but life will return to normal and you, and/or readers of this board, may learn a valuable lesson from this. Good luck.

[soma_]

That sucks. Best of luck to you.

[highlife]

I can say (by second hand experience from a reliable source) that you have a decent chance of beating this case in Clark County NV. One big thing will be the results of your BAL test and the details of the circumstances behind your lockup.

A coworker of mine had a somewhat similar situation and he eventually got his own charges brought down to reckless driving + some other traffic violation. In his case it involved some police incompetance/mistreatment as well, so perhaps eventually you can give us some more details on what happened?

Goodluck. If I can find out the name good traffic/dui attorney i will pass it along to you.

[shadow.]

gonores,

I talked to my dad, a judge, and my mom, an attorney, about what you should do, etc. Basically they said that the only legal advice you should be following from this forum would be:

"Hire an attorney."

There is basically no other way about this situation, dude. A good DUI attorney who knows the clerks, judges, etc. in Clark County is the only person that can really give you specific advice about your situation.

Hire an attorney, he will be very much worth his fees.

Best of luck dude.

John

[Zetack]

Hire an attorney is the only solid advice you are going to get here. Whether he gets you off or not, he knows what judge to get in front of, if there are any angles to work (frequently there are not but when there are it pays off big time--think of it as an inside straight draw) and what you need to do to make the process as painless for you as possible and the punishment if convicted as light as possible. Don't even think of stepping into a courtroom without a good dwi lawyer, even if it costs you a thousand - 1,500 bucks.

Blood tests often come back higher than the intoxilyzer because the rate at which alchohol transfers from the blood into the breath differs for different people. The way its set, in order to be "fair" about 85 percent of people have a higher BAC if measured directly through the blood as opposed to through a breath test. Hard to know which of those you fall into, although the odds suggest you would be one of the people with a higher BAC measured in a blood test.

If you took a roadside breath test though, unless it was one of those mobile labs, you probably took a breathalyzer instead of an intoxilizer. These are less reliable than an intoxilyzer (and in my state the breathalyzer is only admissable to show probable cause if you challenge PC for the arrest, but not to actually prove intoxication) upping the uncertainty factor.

Good luck and let me echo the other's when I say...that sucks.

[TheMetetron]

If he wants to get off relatively unscathed, I suspect it will cost him in the $3-6,000 range.

[mmcd]

[ QUOTE ]
The incident did irreparable damage to my view on police in general. I was lied to or misled every [censored] step of the way

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't believe this came as a surprise to you.

[The Dude]

For those of you who don't typically browse OOT, there's good discussion going on in the crosspost.