Florida DUI Lawyer Blog

Broward County DUI defense attorneys routinely see DUI investigators conducting the pen light exercise when conducting an investigation. The proper name for this test is Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus and it is designed to detect impairment based on a jerking of the eye at certain angles. HGN exercises are unique in that of all standard field sobriety exercises, HGN is a medical test requiring certain training an experience before being admissible in a defendants Broward County DUI trial.

Broward County DUI Attorney Andrew Alitowski explains that a 1981 study concluded that the Gaze Nystagmus could correctly identify participants at or above a BAC of 0.10 seventy-seven percent (77%) of the time, that the walk and turn test could correctly identify participants as being at or above a BAC of 0.10 sixty-eight percent (68%) of the time and the one leg stand test could correctly identify participants at or above a BAC of 0.10 sixty-five percent (65%) of the time. Further, the study stated that when the results of the Gaze Nystagmus with the walk and turn test were combined, they could accurately identify a person at or above a BAC of 0.10 level eighty percent (80%) of the time. Not to be forgotten, the authors also noted a 32% false arrest rate in the overall statistics.

Another NHTSA commissioned study was conducted in 1983. This study was to standardize practical and effective procedures for police officers to use in reaching a decision regarding the arrest of a possible DUI driver. The results of this study echoed the statistical results of the laboratory testing summarized in 1981 by Tharp, Burns and Moskowitz in Development and Field Tests for DUI Arrests.

NHTSA funded yet another study to validate the SFSTs. A study
conducted in Colorado in 1995 was commissioned to examine the results of arrests from seven Colorado law enforcement agencies. A Colorado Validation Study of the Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) Battery (1995) In this study officers were old to identify drivers who had a BAC over 0.05% (between 0.05%).099%) and also drivers who had a BAC over 0.10%. The study found that officers were 86% correct in their determination to arrest or release a motorist.

For more information on HGN, contact our Broward County office today.

Broward County DUI Attorney:
Staying a sentence on a DMV conviction will still result in a driver license suspension

As a rule, when a Broward County DUI defendant enters into a plea to a driving under the influence charge, a sentence must be rendered by the presiding judge immediately. This is in contrast to felony cases whereby a sentencing hearing may follow a plea or conviction by jury sometimes by weeks or even months. As is true in all criminal cases, there are times whereby a Broward County DUI attorney would seek to stay a DUI sentence following conviction. This however, creates some pretty significant problems with the Department of Motor Vehicles if said DUI attorney seeks to also have the suspension of the defendant’s driver license stayed (a mandatory sentence in DUI cases).

The department of motor vehicles is an administrative agency that operates entirely separate from the Broward County judicial system. Consequently, that agency will suspend an individual’s driver license following a conviction for DUI regardless of a court order staying the sentence. Even where a judge signs an order directing the Department of Motor Vehicles to refrain from suspending a driver license, a suspension will still be entered on that defendants record.

Broward County DUI attorneys must always advise their clients of the independent nature of the DMV with regard to driving under the influence convictions. This is especially true with regard to rare instances where a sentence might be stayed.

As an attorney who has defended DUI cases in West Palm Beach for years, I have had the opportunity to speak with many individuals charged with driving under the influence. A few years ago, one of our clients asked me how long this type of act was considered a crime, to which I responded “since the early 1900s” – The conversation soon turned to ascertaining when the first DUIs actually occurred.

The fact is that drinking alcohol and operating various forms of transportation has occurred for thousands of years. The use of animals as vehicles was most certainly done under the influence too many times to chronicle. It is unlikely that this activity led to much disaster and loss. The fact is that this type of activity rarely endangered anybody or anything other than the operator and the animal. More importantly, prior to modern times it was never against the law.

Much has changed since the industrial revolution, however, and now, it is well understood that DUI is crime that is taken very seriously in Palm Beach County. If you have been arrested call attorney Andrew Alitowski and schedule an appointment today.

Driving under the influence, or DUI, is one of the most common charges for which traffic patrol officers place drivers under arrest. A law enforcement officer may be tipped off to a driver’s possible DUI in several ways. First, concerned motorists may dial 911 or call the police non-emergency line, says Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer Moore. The police officer may also personally observe driving behavior he or she believes is suspicious, such as swerving, failure to maintain a single lane, low rate of speed, driving with headlights turned off after dark, and other indicators. The law enforcement officer might also become suspicious of DUI after conducting a traffic stop for another reason, however, such as speeding because the registered owner of the vehicle is wanted for a different crime.

Broward DUI lawyer Moore says that the worst circumstances under which law enforcement authorities might begin investigating a possible DUI is after an accident. In particular, single-car accidents, in which there are no mitigating factors, tend to be evaluated as potential evidence of intoxication.

That situation is precisely what happened to a local police officer when he was out of town recently, says Broward DUI attorney Moore. Sergeant Curtis Cuddeback is a 50-year-old member of the Coconut Creek police department. He went out of town to Roscommon County, Michigan approximately two weeks ago. While out of the state, he was involved in a single-car accident, in which the Ford Explorer he was driving rolled over at least once. Police reporting to the scene apparently found him climbing out of the vehicle. He reportedly kept repeating himself and telling officers that he was a police officer. Nonetheless, they found open containers of alcohol in the vehicle. Further, Sergeant Cuddeback’s blood alcohol content – determined after a blood draw he forced officers to obtain a search warrant to get – was found to be approximately twice the level at which a driver is presumed to be impaired.

Recently, Sergeant Cuddeback entered a guilty plea. He originally pleaded not guilty to the DUI charge, but recently accepted a plea that will put him on probation until his formal sentencing in March. The terms of the DUI plea deal are unclear.

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