Don Hammond: Hi, I’m Don Hammond, your local DUI attorney and criminal defense hero. Today, I want to talk about what to do if you’re pulled over for a DUI. I represent a lot of people in DUI cases, and you can see behind me here on the shelf are the training manuals for the DUI investigation classes that police officers commonly take.
When you’re pulled over for a DUI, and an officer smells alcohol on your breath, sees bloodshot watery eyes, or- and/or hears, uh, slurred speech, [00:00:30] uh, they’re going to begin a DUI investigation. Once they ask you to step out of the vehicle, there’s about a 95% chance that you’re going to jail. So, at that point, there’s no reason to give them any more evidence to support their case. That means you don’t have to do the field sobriety test. So, don’t follow the pen, don’t walk the line, don’t stand on one leg. None of those roadside gymnastics are required, and all you’re doing is giving them more evidence against you to build their case to try to get a DUI conviction.
[00:01:00] You also don’t need to answer any questions. When they ask you whether you’ve been drinking, what you’ve been drinking, where you were drinking, where you’re going, all these kinds of questions you’re not required to answer and you can simply decline. Uh, that also applies for the portable alcohol sensor. This is a breathalyzer device that they like to use at the side of the road, um, to give them a preliminary reading of what your blood or breath alcohol, uh, readings might be. [00:01:30] You don’t have to do that one out there in the field.
After you’ve declined all of these things, or like most of my clients if you’ve gone ahead and done some of these, uh, roadside tests, uh, the likelihood is that you will be arrested, uh, regardless of how well you think you did on the test, and at that point, once they put the handcuffs on, once they have those little, uh, silver bracelets on you, then you’re going to have to make a choice between blood or breath. You do have a right to refuse at this point, but it’s going to result in a one year [00:02:00] license suspension, and it’s very difficult to avoid that, and the officer should tell you that. If he doesn’t, that’s another area for us to look into in your case.
Uh, but when you have to make that choice between blood or breath, I would generally choose blood because they have to preserve a sample that I could have tested in an independent laboratory to confirm, uh, whether their state’s laboratory was accurate, and in some cases, uh, you know, if you weren’t drinking at all and somehow the blood comes back that- with a high reading, [00:02:30] uh, we can actually do a DNA test on that blood to make sure they’re testing the right blood, uh, to make sure that they’re going after the right person, uh, for, uh, this, uh, DUI.
So, those are the things to look out for when you are, uh, pulled over on the side of the road for a, uh, on suspicion of DUI. Um, don’t do the field sobriety test, don’t answer questions, don’t do the PAS. Say, “I’d love to, but my attorney Don Hammond says don’t do it. I’m going to call the DUI hero today and, uh, get my defense [00:03:00] started”, then give me a call at 888-DUI-HERO, and we will make sure your rights are preserved and that we minimize the consequences of this arrest. You get your life back on track. Thanks for listening.
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