DW was charged with OWI and possession of marijuana
On March 17, 2007, DW was stopped for failing to use a turn signal while driving in a remote, dark location. A police officer was parked off of the roadway with his lights off watching the intersection. The officer followed the car driven by DW for a lengthy period of time and claimed to see weaving and swerving over lane markers. After the car was stopped, DW was arrested for drunk driving and suspected marijuana was found in the car. DW waived his Miranda rights and sincerely told the officer that he did not know about the marijuana.
We argued during preliminary motions that the officer's stop was unlawful because the turn signal statute requires the presence of other vehicles before a person is obligated to use a turn signal and the weaving and swerving over lane markers was not recorded by the officer's in-car video equipment. We also argued that the arrest decision was not supported by probable cause because the client passed all admissible field sobriety tests, and the horizontal gaze nystagmus test was performed improperly.
After an unsuccessful appeal to the circuit court, we won at the Michigan Court of Appeals, which remanded the matter back to the lower court for an evidentiary hearing. Despite our best efforts and superb testimony by our field sobriety test expert, retired police officer Tony Corroto, the lower court judge reserved judgment on the motions until trial.
Weeks prior to trial, the United States Supreme Court limited a police officer's ability to search a car following an arrest, holding that if the suspect was in handcuffs and secured in the patrol car a search of a car can only occur under specific circumstances. We argued that this case was identical to the search of DW's car, but the trial court judge disagreed, and we proceeded to trial on both charges.
Despite a .13 breath test result, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on both counts. Given that over two years and several hearings had occurred since the incident, the arresting officer was far more willing to admit mistakes during the investigation. The arresting officer also admitted that the .13 breath score was less than reliable because two breath test scores should have been recorded.
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