Sorry, computer screwed up in posting multiple.

 

The thing that gets me the most is the fact that you dont blow, you automatically get your DL suspended. What happens if the cop is an ******* and even though you clearly arnt drinking, you are asked to blow. If I have not been drinking, I wont blow. Thats it. And ill be damned if I get my license suspended for not doing anything wrong. The cops around here try and try to search my truck. I have never been stopped (knock on wood) but they have came up on us at different locations just to see what we were up to. When they come up I close my doors and roll up my windows (5% tint). The first time I let him look in my truck and they tore it all up. They removed all the stuff from under my seat, pulled stuff out of my glove box/center counsole, just made a mess. So now I say no. All of the cops around here are really cool except 2. One is a rookie, and the other is a former patrol now the head narc officer. He is always on his high horse and even the cops are starting to not like him.

Josiah good luck man.

 

In all honesty, I know it sucks for ya Josiah, but you're going to have to tell the entire story truthfully for you to have any chance, seek free legal counsel first to see if you even have a chance before you blow some serious cash. I wouldn't give up all hope though, from the sounds of it, you definately still have a chance..

1st off, pretty much every cruiser is required to have a camera, and it is standard for them to keep you in the field of the cameras view (this is good for you.. keep reading). Under normal circumstances, unless you had something in plain view, they had no right, to lawfully enter your vehicle without your permission. For them to grab the registration inside your vehicle prior to your arrest, is a big no-no, and is your best chance at turning this around. Regardless if they were just grabbing your registration, they entered your vehicle unlawfully, and everything else that happens afterwards would pretty much be thrown out the window.

That being said, you ran a stop light, that's reason enough to pull you over.. thats also enough probable cause to perform FST on you. For you to refuse FST is reason enough for arrest if the officer was to assume you were DUI. So basically, it all comes down to when did they reach into your vehicle? At what point did they have everyone get outta the vehicle? At what point did they verbally arrest you, and read you your rights (cuffs/restraint isn't necessarily required for DUI arrest). If you refused to take chemical testing after your arrest, then there's not much you can do.. the only chance you're going to have with this is prior to your arrest, with them entering your vehicle without your consent for the registration. This definately constitutes for unreasonable search and seizure, even though they didn't find the open container at this point, they still technically performed a search by entering your truck if even only for grabbing some papers.

As for them distinctly telling you you have no choice in breath test or blood after your arrest, that in itself is unlawful.. and yet another reason to help your case. As with your miranda rights, they are required to tell you the consequences of refusing chemical testing if you wished to refuse, and from what you're saying, they clearly didn't give you the choice to refuse at all. Once again, they can't forcibly make you take the test, but in a sense they did.. so that's a big mess up on their part. Had you refused and they simply allowed you to refuse, it would be a different story.. either way, after your arrested, if you refuse chemical testing, your liscense would have been suspended for violating your "implied consent". Technically, even though you initially refused the breath test, you did give a blood test.. so.. in a sense, you still followed through, I would imagine this would negate you refusing breath test, if you could reason that you preferred the blood test.. nonetheless, you did refuse. Had you taken it and failed, you might have gotten off with a DUI lawyer in that breath tests can be argued inaccurate.

Okay so here's how it stands.. regardless if you were under or over the limit, if you refuse chemical testing after an arrest, your license gets suspended for a year. BUT... they entered your vehicle to grab your registration papers prior to your arrest, and seemingly prior before they had probable cause of seeing open containers, everything gets thrown out.. IMO.. case closed.. you win

 

yay team!!!

 

Zeruin, I'm glad you did not contest any of the claims I made and continued to give advice on questionable claims as everything I have said was spot on, I cannot afford to flex any truth as this is going to be seen on camera in court. Trust me I am here for a realistic evaluation.

One of the girls with me just announced the officer said "the truck smelled like alcohol". Is that probably cause to search? This was when the Sargeant arrived, he peaked inside the truck and said this. I told the officers I picked the people I had up in a nearby town when their driver got a dui leaving them all drunk and stranded. I noted they could not safely take that vehicle home and that is the reason I picked them up. They also noted I did not smell like alcohol unlike the other passengers. This is not something I was aware of until just now (the fact that he said it smelled like alcohol).

The officers were frustrated the entire time scolding me to cooperate and make it easier on myself...I respectfully declined everytime and the Sargeant eventually lossed it on me..."Take his *** to jail, tow the truck, and give them all drunk in publics!"

I am sorry a vital piece of information comes up now but you guys find out when I find out. Does this change things? I would assume not considering if you pick up a drunk friend at the bar, get pulled over and they smell alcohol...all of a sudden they have probable cause to search your vehicle?

 

Unfortunately, smelling alcohol does give them probable cause to search your vehicle, smell is one of their primary senses for determing probable cause in searching vehicles.. similar concept applies if someone was smoking weed and they smelled weed from outside the car, it would constitute to a reasonable search.. all that aside, it doesn't change things much..

What matters more, you said they entered your vehicle to grab your registration.. If you had refused them entry to your vehicle and they still went in to grab it, that's where it gets thrown out.. in your defense, at that point they could could have smelled "inside" your vehicle.. and that's an unreasonable search.. even if it was only for a second to grab those papers, they messed up. That's where everything else gets thrown out... heck you could have had a pound of cocaine in the glovebox and it would have still been thrown out.

I'm heading to bed, I'll check back up on this in the morning.. lol.. but when did they enter the vehicle for the first time? What happened before that? Try to be as descriptive as possible up until the point when they first entered.. You said ya rolled through the stop, they pulled you over.. but in details, what happened from there? Obviously, I'm not a lawyer.. but it doesn't hurt to know what to expect before you go into to speak with a real one..

 

For everyone here that says they would refuse the breathalyser, I have a question.

The police have a tough job to do by keeping the drunks off the road.
My question is this:
If everyone shared the same attitude as some of you guys and said "I ain't takin' the test, screw that, I'm an innocent man, and your not insulting my good name by making me take a test"

How are they supposed to do their jobs?

If they are not allowed to do their jobs effectively, maybe it will be your little girl who gets killed by a drunk driver.
Will you suck it up then and swallow a little dignity for the sake of the common good?

I understand where some of you guys are coming from, but you have to look at it from the cops point of view as well.

Do you want the police to be able to do their job?
Is the answer yes? Or yes for everyone else, but not you?

Some of you guys are on such a high horse I don't get it.

20 years ago a friend of mine had his life changed by a drunk driver.
A drunk driver ran a stop sign and struck the car being driven by my friend's dad.
Inside the car were his parents, his brother, and his fiancé.
In an instant, he lost everyone he loved and cared about because some useless pos drove while drunk.

Drinking and driving is a big deal and if you don't think it is, you have your head in your ***.

Josiah, best of luck to you man.

 

Saying that is nothing more than a reverse psychology trick. Of course they smelled alcohol. You admit that you had been drinking. I don't care if it's one, two, three, etc.,....that fact you had alcohol in your system.

In California, you give consent when you sign your license to having your breath, blood, or urine tested if you are suspected of DUI when stopped. Your refusal is an automatic suspension...and if your blood test comes back over the limit, you are subject of possible jail time, fines, DUI programs, and a restricted license.

 

Isn't usually one of the first thing an officer asks is for your license, registration and insurance after being pulled over. I don't understand what you mean, "I would rather the public not see in my glove box." Strange. Sounds to me the full story is not being told.

 

Habibi, Im right there with you, as stated in my post earlier. I used to be like that...screw cops, they hate me, blah blah, then when I saw my little sister physically hurt and laying on a curb bleeding from her head, and her best friend in the same condition sitting in the road, and me going from 40 to 0 instantlly in a Corolla (thank God I was buckled)....it kind of changes your perspective on things. Yes, this wreck could have happened if the other guy had been sober, but more than likely not.

I know police officers are not always nice, I'm 24 and I still get hassled for little things like not wearing my seatbelt in my own neighborhood and telling me that my exhaust pipes are too loud. But when it comes to keeping alcohol/drugs off the streets, Im all for it, because even 'after a couple', you could easily cause the next DUI fatality. Bam, there goes your whole life.

 

Habibi, I respect your response and am sorry for your friends loss.

I am praying there was a camera on that car right now. This is a quick run down of the entire ordeal up until I was arrested.

Run stop sign, police flips around and pulls me over.

Pulls everyone out of the car because he says "4 of you and 1 of me", not because he smelled alcohol.

Has 2 passengers take the breath test. NOT the 20 year old NOR me. Just found that out.

Takes care of 20yr old with ticket warrant, gives her court date.

Sits us down on curb, repeatedly asks me the story.

Looks in the truck windows with flashlight, can't see much with tint. Asks why there is a budlight box with a jacket over it.

Then he asks for Registration and Insurance. He asked if he can go in and get it, I said no I would rather get it. He says, "why don't you just have a seat"...walks over to my truck and grabs it all. Pulls out the wrong insurance like 3 times.

This is about 45mins in...

He is 2 seconds from letting me go with just a stop sign ticket (when the girl with warrant was in his car talking to him, she overhears them saying they believe me and were going to let me go with the ticket). As he is writing me the stop sign ticket giving me instructions on what to do when I go to court, I asked something about the ticket and he goes you know what, come with me. Took me to the back of the car to administer the blow test. I respectfully refused that and the FST. He calls in backup. The sargeant and a few others arrive and the sargeant is all fired up. He is the one who claims to smell alcohol, I am going to find out if it was before or after he opened the door. Right now we believe it was after he opened the door and starts rummaging.

He only asked for my license, he pulled me out of the truck first thing and grabbed everyones license. No lies here, where would my motive be in that, I am trying to get pre-advice, if I'm going to lie it's not going to be to you guys if you catch my drift.

Also, I told the officers I had nothing to drink at all.

Any questions, I'll ask the other people who were closer to the truck when this was going on.

 

Well actually the law states that the operator of a motor vehicle consents to the chemical testing of his or her blood or breath for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his or her blood

Furthermore, implied consent is in effect to chemically test the operator's blood or urine for the purpose of determining the drug content of his or her blood.

Urine cannot be used to determine BAC.

Additionally, this applies to all persons operating a motor vehicle in the state of California, not just those persons who hold a California driver's license.

http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11_5/vc23612.htm

 

http://www.wivb.com/#

These kids have no mom forever, think it over bud.

 

I hate and despise drunk drivers. And yes I have done it...I was in college once.

One of my very good buddies had his wife murdered by a drunk driver. Why do I say she was murdered? Because the man CHOSE to but the bottle to his lips.

I was hit on my motorcycle with my wife by a man who had been drinking. We both ended up not receiving any injuries, but my bike took a thousand dollar beating. If my wife had been injured in any way. I would have killed the driver in front of his family. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to act tough to impress anyone here in this forum. Killing him would have been in my mind, the best solution. To hell with him and his family. I would have done it, and rubbed their noses in his entrails. Does this seam harsh? He obviously did not care about his family, he was driving drunk. Why should I care?

A very good buddy of mine got popped with a DUI about a year ago. As much disdain for drinking and driving...I wanted to help him. I spent hours speaking to a relative who was the assistant DA in Indiana. He helped my buddy immensely, and my buddy spent the coin to keep the DUI off of his record. He does not drink and drive any longer. I still wonder why I helped him. I guess when you care for someone, there are two sets of standards.

I will admit the hypocrisy in my logic of hating drunk drivers, and coming to the aid of a close friend. I am just being honest and upfront about it. I personally think that you should pay for what you did. You were drunk. That's why you refused to blow, and refused to let the police to search your vehicle.

If you never drive drunk again, and learn a lesson that changes your behavior...I still hope it hurts your pocket book, so that you may never forget what you did. Yes, its easy for me to sit on my high horse and condemn your actions...but then again, you seem more concerned with getting away with what you did than being remorseful.

Hopefully you will NEVER do what you did again. You are lucky that you did not kill anyone...and lucky that it was not me that you could have hit. Pay the lawyer, and learn a life lesson. Most of the time, learning comes with a cost.

It sounds as though your interaction with the cops was the right choices to get away with a criminal action. I hope and pray you change your ways.

Your comment was the only reason I posted...

 

I wish the best for you Josiah. I really do.


I find it interesting how fast the cop made you guys get out of the vehicle. In Az, usually they are not that fast to get you out. They do alot of talking (IE, license and registration) and questioning first. Then they will pull you. Even blatantly drunk they dont get you out that fast.