Trip Report - DUI

[MitchL]

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Yeah, I stopped drinking immediately upon hearing I couldn't stay in DL. I didn't start until approx. 9:45 and only drank til approx. 11:00 p.m. so it wasn't as if I drank that much either, though I did have a few shots. My lawyer thinks we have a great chance of getting the charges dropped with a motion to suppress the evidence or at the very least, getting it dropped to a reckless. There is no legal reason to pull over a random guy because he drives through a parking lot of a gas station that is closed. As to him asking why I was going to two gas stations within a couple miles, I could have been gettin cigarettes the first store didn't carry or any number of other things that should not be a cause for pulling over a car. My 4th Amendment right involving probable cause were definitely taken away here IMO and apparently my lawyer's (and hopefully the judge's [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]). The arresting officer couldn't say I was swerving, and he couldn't charge me with any citations. Suspicious vehicle = late model Accord now days I guess.

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Your chances at a supression hearing are slim. An officer doesnt need probable cause to stop you. He needs a reasonable suspicion to make a brief investigatory stop. That is an easy standard to meet. Once he smells aclo on your breath he then has probable cause to believe that you are intoxicated and can therefore prolong the stop and/or arrest you. As long as he doesnt detain you for an unreasonable amount of time during the intial "investigatory stop" then you cant win a suppression hearing. Judges dont like granting them and cruising a closed gas station parking lots at odd hrs is plenty suspicious enough to warrant a stop. It sucks, but that is the system and most lay-citizens see suppression hearings as "getting off on a legal-technicality" and elected judges know this. They are hard to win. I would bet big money that you wont win.