Another trial

At work I make a few traffic stops every night. In the past it was for the court overtime. Now it is for training purposes. Traffic stops are a very important part of policing. A lot of crimes are solved and criminals are put in jail from traffic stops. For example, the man responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing was caught because of a traffic stop. Since there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop, I like to do a few every night with my probationary officers. The more stops that they make, the better they will get at them. Due to the number of traffic stops that I make, I get quite a few drunk drivers.

Back in December of 2008, Kai, my probationary at the time, and I stopped a vehicle that did not have headlights on at night and made an illegal left turn where prohibited by sign. The driver turned out to be intoxicated. I called for a DWI Task Force unit. He made the scene and handled the field sobriety tests and processed the DWI. The driver decided to submit to a breath test and she blew a .14. The legal limit is .08. I have never had to go to trail on a DWI case where the defendant submitted a breath test. Well, there is a first time for everything.

The assistant district attorney, ADA, called me and said that the case was going to trial. The defendant had been offered a plea bargain and had turned it down. The ADA thought that they were going to go with a "pretty girl" defense. Sometimes attractive people get off just because they are attractive. Since it was 11 months after the traffic stop, the ADA refreshed my memory. It was not a particularly memorable DWI except that the passenger was drunker than the driver and was dressed like Srg. Pepper. Strange. The ADA told me to be in court at 11 AM on Monday and that I should be done testifying before lunch.

I arrived in the court at 11 AM and was surprised to see that there was not a jury. The ADA informed me that they did not have enough morning panels of jurors, so they were hoping to get an afternoon panel. I was told to be back by 3 PM. At least I was getting paid for being there. I returned at 3 PM and I was on the stand testifying by 3:30 PM. Since I was the officer that made the traffic stop, I was the first witness called by the State. Using me, the State had to prove probable cause for the traffic stop. That was easy, an illegal left turn and driving at night without headlights. After answering the ADA's questions, it was the defense attorney's turn to question me.

He quickly gave away his strategy, at least with me. He tried to show the jury that every intoxication factor that the defendant exhibited could be explained away as something other than intoxication. The funny thing is he is correct. The defendant had five factors that led us to believe that she was intoxicated, she made an illegal left turn, she was driving at night without headlights, there was a strong alcoholic beverage odor coming from the vehicle. the defendant had bloodshot glassy eyes, and slurred speech. If you take any one of those factors, they can be explained as something other than intoxication. For example, bloodshot glassy eyes can also mean that someone is fatigued. But, if you add all 5 factors together, they point to intoxication. The defense attorney asked me the same questions 5 different ways trying to get me to slip up and contradict myself. He tried putting words in my mouth. He did his job. I was finally released from court at 4:30 PM. Three more officers testified after I did over the course of the following day. Then the case was given to the jury and they did their job by rendering a guilty verdict. The defendant should have taken the plea bargain.

It is amazing how much time, money, and effort goes into prosecuting and defending a Class B Misdemeanor. It is ridiculous that a DWI is only a Class B Misdemeanor. There needs to be a greater deterrent. Recently a man with three prior DWI convictions in Harris County ran over a 6 year old girl while he was driving drunk again. Something needs to change.

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