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You’re out for the evening, hoping to have a great time when… Oh no! You see the flashing lights of a police car behind you, beckoning you to pull over to the side of the road. Your heart sinks into the pit of your stomach as panic begins to set in. But have no fear! If you’re well prepared and keep your wits when it comes to you, you’ll come out of this unscathed. But what SHOULD you do? Just follow these simple suggestions, and everything will be fine. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS (FOR ALL TRAFFIC STOPS): 1. First and foremost, REMAIN CALM. Take a deep breath and clear your head. Find a safe place to stop and pull your car off to the side of the road. Put the car in “Park” and retrieve your Driver’s License, Vehicle Registration, and Proof of Insurance. Have them ready when the officer comes to your window. He/she may not ask for all of them, but it’s best to have them handy so there won’t be any fumbling for them while the officer is standing at your window. You’ll be a great deal nervous, and you don’t want nervous clumsiness to be mistaken for a sign of drunkenness/impairment. 2. ALWAYS be polite and respectful with the officer(s). While we’ve all the heard the stories in regards to dirty cops pulling persons over just to harass them or to meet a good deal of sort of “arrest quota,” most law enforcement officers are merely attempting to do their jobs, and have pulled you over because they have a authenti suspicion that something is amiss. Besides, not a single soul has EVER helped his/her cause by angering the officer that pulled him/her over. It’s a outstanding way to make things MUCH worse MUCH faster. Believe it or not, I’ve in truth seen officers “go to bat” in Court for persons they’ve pulled over, just because the person was courteous and respectful with them. And in this queer situation, you don’t need to go making an enemy of the person who has the power to determine whether you go home or to jail for the night. 3. While you’re being courteous and polite, DON’T suppose the police officer to do you any favors. THE OFFICER IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. He/she is gathering proof to use AGAINST you. Don’t give it to him/her. Well, how do I do THAT, you might be asking? Keep reading. 4. Hand the officer whatsoever documentation he/she requests, and get out of the car when he/she asks you to do so, but don’t do ANYTHING else. Under the law, you are required to provide identification when the officer asks for it, and you are required to get out of your vehicle when asked to do so. However, you are not required by law to do ANYTHING more unless you are beneath arrest. 5. Do not say anything that could be used as proof versus you. Again, the officer is not your friend. You are NOT going to “talk your way out of it.” The more you say, the worse it is for you. Some persons seem to think that the best way to make the circumstance better is to just “spill their guts.” Not true. You say nothing. You confess to nothing. If the officer presses you to answer his/her questions, plainly tell him/her that you do not feel comfortable answering any questions until you’ve spoken to an attorney. At that point, the officer MUST end all questioning. However, if he/she doesn’t, proceed to repeat the above phrase verbatim until the officer in the end realizes that there isn’t going to be any selective information forthcoming. Even questions that seem to be innocuous, or just “harmless conversation” may come back to haunt you later if you give the wrong answers. Don’t undertake to valuate which questions are OK to answer and which ones aren’t (especially when your mental faculties are already compromised by the stress of having a police officer standing in front of you). You have the right to stay silent. Use it. 6. Do not comply with any of the officer’s “requests.” If he/she wants you to give your consent to have your vehicle searched, refuse to give it. If he/she wants you to submit to Field Sobriety Testing, refuse to take the tests. If he/she asks you to do ANY kind of testing whatsoever, refuse to submit to the tests. (More on this queer subject matter later.) The only time you ever are required by law to do anything is when you’re underneath arrest. And you are not considered “under arrest” until you’re cuffed in the back of the cruiser. These are your rights as provided in the Constitution. They subsist for your own protection. Use them. 7. Do not fall for the officer’s “tricks” or “threats.” Police officers are permitted to lie to you, tell you half-truths, and even threaten you (to a sure extent), and they will do it without reservation if they think it will lead to a conviction. Stand on your rights. Remain silent, refuse to comply with requests, and ask to speak to an attorney at each turn. And don’t forget that while you’re stonewalling, always be courteous and respectful. 8. If you’re being given a traffic ticket, you may be asked to sign it. This is not an admittance of guilt. It merely suggests your recognition that you received a copy of the ticket, so feel free to sign it. After you’ve received your ticket and are on your way, check the ticket for data with regards to your Court date (usually conveyed at the bottom somewhere), then contact an attorney to determine whether or not it is worth your while to fight the ticket in Court. A good portion of the time, you may receive a better result showing up in Court and contesting the ticket than you may by plainly paying it. The Prosecutor has the capacity to negotiate with you, and you may ofttimes obtain a substantial gain by doing so. For example, you might be capable to negotiate your ticket down to a non-moving violation (which is a gain to you because it carries no points versus your license and won’t cause your insurance rates to go up), or you could negotiate away the points the violation carries versus your license. It’s alway a good idea to at least TRY to negotiate your ticket down. There is much to be gained and little to lose. SPECIFIC TO DUI/OMVI/OVI/DRUNK DRIVING STOPS: 9. Of course, the sheer BEST way to keep away from being arrested for DUI is to not drink and drive at all. This is wondrous advice, but it’s likely of little solace to you now, the day AFTER you were arrested for drunk driving. For humans who find themselves in the adverse position of having made the faulty choice (or even humans who REALLY DIDN’T make the faulty choice, but are suspected of drunk driving anyway), and now have flashing police lights behind them on the roadway, here’s what to do. 10. If the officer suspects that you are driving while impaired (from alcohol consumption, drug use, or any other reason), the basi thing he/she will ask you to do is to take a series of Field Sobriety Tests (FSTs). As I noted above, you must ALWAYS refuse ALL of them. If you’re marveling why, and aren’t satisfied with the blanket, “because it is your right to do so” response, I will talk about the reasons why you ought to refuse to take each specific Field Sobriety Test below. There are three (3) general Field Sobriety Tests you’ll be asked to take. They’re ALL wildly unreliable, yet they’re given outstanding weight as “evidence” when staged in Court. And to use a euphuism that’s much more comfortable to remember, “Don’t give them the rope to hang you with.” 11. The firstborn test you may be asked to submit to is known as the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test, more normally known as “the pen test.” During this test, the officer will hold a pen or his finger in front of your face regarding six inches away and move it tardily back and forth. You will be asked to watch the pen, tracking it only with your eyes (not turning your head). The officer is looking for six (6) “clues” (three in each eye) which he will supposedly determine whether or not you’re under the influence of alcohol. Nystagmus, in general, is a “bobbing” or “pulsating” of the eye. If you demonstrate Nystagmus, your eye will be unable to with no problems or difficulties track the motion of the pen to the side (horizontally), and will rather make erratic “jumps.” If the officer notices Nystagmus in your eye, he/she will chalk it up as a sign of your impairment. 11a. Why you must refuse to submit to the HGN test. This test, while it SOUNDS very scientific and foolproof to the intermediate person on the street, it is in truth anything but. While HGN may be a sign of alcohol-induced impairment, there are in regards to 100 other explanations for why a person’s eye may demonstrate HGN. The police officers are not trained as to what these 100 other explanations are (nay, that they even EXIST). They are plainly trained that when the eye “bounces,” that person is drunk. Not so! Additionally, there are a whole host of dissimilar KINDS of Nystagmus which all have dissimilar causes (most of which have utterly not one thing to do with alcohol use). The police officers are not trained to recognize the dissimilar KINDS of Nystagmus. Again, they are ONLY trained that when the eye “bounces,” that person is drunk. So imagine that you’ve just submitted to the HGN test, and the officer notices Nystagmus in your eye. That officer doesn’t recognise and wasn’t trained in how to recognize which KIND of Nystagmus it is, nor does he/she know what ACTUALLY caused the Nystagmus to appear (FYI, Nystagmus may be caused by any number of innocuous components that have not one thing to do with alcohol use, from cigarette smoke, to crying–there is even a sure percentage of the population that demonstrates Nystagmus just as a naturally occuring condition in their eyes). That officer will mark down on his/her report that he/she noticed “all six clues” (I’ve NEVER seen an arrest report in which the officer saw ANYTHING other than “all six clues”), and that will be submitted to the Court as proof that you were drunk. Then it will be up to YOU to prove that the test, report, and/or inference it raises are inaccurate. Good luck with all that. You would be much better served if there were just no report to begin with (remember, “don’t give them the rope to hang you with”?) So just keep away from all those pitfalls and plainly refuse to submit to the HGN test. 12. The “Walk And Turn” Test. In this test, you will be shown a line on the road and asked to walk on it. But here’s the catch: you can’t just walk on the line and that’s it. There is a laundry list of requirements you have to meet in order to “pass” the test. First of all, you have to stand ramrod stiff. You’re not permitted to look down at the line with your head. You’re not permitted to raise your arms from your sides more than six inches. You’re not permitted to even walk like a normal person (you have to touch your heel to your toe on each step). Then you have to do a bizarre spinning turn at the end and come back. All without stepping off the line. And as an added bonus, you ALSO have to count your steps. But you can’t JUST count your steps; there is a very specific WAY you’re supposed to count your steps. You have to start out at one, and count the specific number of steps the officer tells you (the number is dissimilar each time), THEN, after you’ve negotiated the bizarre spinning turn, you have to count your steps BACKWARDS from where you started. And, oh by the way, you get docked points for just a FEW things: swaying while listening to the instructions, not keeping your feet locked together while listening to the instructions, raising your arms more than six inches from your body at ANY time, looking down at the line with your head, stepping off the line on ANY of your steps, NOT touching your heel to your toe on each step (any gap amongst the heel and toe is unacceptable), starting counting on the faulty number (do you begin from zero or from one?), ending counting on the defective number, incorrectly doing the Michael Jackson spun at the end of the line, starting counting with the faulty number while counting backwards on the way back (is the spun considered a step? If you go nine steps, do you start out counting backwards at nine or at eight?), ending on the wrong number (do you stop at one or at zero?), etc. 12a. Why you must refuse to submit to the “Walk And Turn” test: If the answer isn’t patently apparent to you by now, just go try to finish this test right now in the ease of your own living room, dead-solid sober. How some humans have ALREADY failed? Now consider that this test will in general be given to you on the side of a public highway (with cars rushing past you at high speeds), in the dark of night, on an inconsistent surface (the road could be uneven, wet, slippery, gravel-covered, etc.), with 37 bazillion megawatt lights flashing in your eyes, and underneath the stress of possible arrest/incarceration. Yeah, this test is KINDA undependable as an indicator of impairment. So don’t go to Court and try to argue that even altho you failed the “Walk And Turn” test, you weren’t REALLY drunk. Don’t give them the rope to hang you with. Refuse the test. 13. The “One-Leg Stand” Test. In this test, you will be asked to stand in front of the officer, lift one of your feet off the ground and stand on one leg while you count out a sure amount of seconds (usually 30 or more). Sounds gorgeous straightforward, right? Well, once again, there’s a catch. This test has yet another laundry list of requirements, and they include: not standing with your feet locked together while listening to the instructions, swaying while listening to instructions, raising your arms more than six inches from your body at any time, not looking straight in front with your eyes and head, lifting your foot either MORE or LESS than the required 12 inches off the ground, not counting the right way (it’s supposed to be, “One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand,” etc.), counting too fast, counting too slow, not starting on the right number, not finishing on the right number, putting your foot down before you reach the indicated ending number, wobbling too much while your foot is in the air, etc. And you can’t even lift your foot straight up off the ground in a semi-natural way. You have to raise the foot up IN FRONT OF YOU, with your knee locked and your leg straight (sort of like you’re when it comes to to begin walking, but just froze in mid-step). Once again, you see that the devil is in the details with this one. 13a. Why you will have to refuse to submit to the “One-Leg Stand” test: Again, as I cited in 12a., it must be gorgeous evident to you by now why you shouldn’t take this test. But if you’re still unconvinced, again, go undertake to do it in your own living room and see if you may pass. Then figure in the same considerations noted in 12a. Are you ready to let a child’s balancing test determine whether or not you must go to jail? Yeah, me neither. So don’t give them a test to use as proof versus you in Court. Don’t give them the rope to hang you with. Refuse this test too. 14. Now that you’ve refused all the FSTs the officer has offered you, you are in all probability beneath arrest and sitting in the back of the cruiser (don’t curse yourself OR me for putting you in this position–the dirty mystery not a single soul will tell you is that if an officer suspects that you’re drunk sufficient to undertake to give you FSTs, you’re going to be arrested anyway, irrespective of how you would have performed on them, for a 100% certainty, and by doing things this way, you’ve actually protected yourself at the same time). Once again, don’t talk, don’t answer any questions, don’t do ANYTHING until you speak to an attorney. That means refuse any test you’re offered. Which brings us to the next phase of the DUI stop. 15. The Breathalyzer/Breath Test. By now, you ought to probably recognise very well what to do. That’s right, REFUSE IT! Why? Because even altho they’re machines, they’re not infallible. Most breathalyzer machines are wildly inaccurate and inherent unreliable. There may be mechanical errors with the machine, and there may be humane errors with it is calibration and/or operation. How galore times have you had something go faulty with your TV, or your computer, or your dishwasher? Well, these machines are just like that. Except when breathalyzer machines malfunction, it’s more than just an inconvenience; innocent persons go to jail. Because most jury members will take the breathalyzer machine results as solid gold evidence. If you’ve got a breathalyzer test showing you were over the legal limit (whether you genuinely were or not), you may gorgeous much kiss any prospect of walking away from this without a DUI on your record goodbye. So don’t give a glorified toaster the prospect to convict you. Don’t give them the rope to hang you with. Now, I may already listen a lot of you saying, “But if I refuse the breath test, I’ll lose my license for a year!” Well, let me just say that the quick answer is: that’s true. But we’ll talk about that in dandier depth later. 16. If you feel that you perfectly MUST submit to a heap of sort of Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) testing, always insist on either a urine or blood test. Not only are those tests much more precise and dependable (the blood test, somewhat moreso than the urine test), but they’re also having little impact for your attorney to undertake to combat in Court. With all the administrative regulatings placed on the gathering, storing, and testing of blood and/or urine samples, there are a ton of dissimilar ways the test may be tainted in a way that will concede your attorney to have it suppressed (a imagination word which means the Prosecutor can’t use it as proof versus you). Just do not forget that these test aren’t infallible or 100% exact either. AND, as has become a running theme it seems, when you submit to any kind of testing, you’re handing the State, the entity that wants to hang you, a long, sturdy piece of rope. Just don’t do it. 17. In a heap of States, the law is being changed to cut down on the accused’s right to refuse Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) testing. Some States are permitting Judges to issue search warrantees for a person’s blood. Meanwhile, a good deal of States are proposing changes to the law that make the act of refusing BAC testing an wholly discerned crime. I believe that both measures are an affront to our Constitutional rights, and I don’t believe either would withstand Supreme Court scrutiny, but that’s another topic for another day. 18. Now, returning to the idea that if you refuse BAC testing, you could lose your driver’s license for a year. As I said above, the quick answer is that it’s true. Under most States’ “implied consent” statutes, you are considered to have accorded to submit to BAC testing upon request of law enforcement plainly by, and as a condition of, possessing a driver’s license. Failure to comply with this agreement permits the State to suspend your license for a amount of time of time (usually a year), no questions asked. And the kicker here is that even if you prove your innocence in Court and receive a “Not Guilty” verdict, you still eat the license suspension (again, it has not one thing to do with whether or not you were driving drunk; it is a penalty for refusing the BAC test). So you may be asking, “Why would I ever take your counsel and refuse the breath/blood/urine test?” Because, like most things in life, it’s what you DON’T know that may genuinely hurt you. What you DON’T know, and what no police officer will EVER tell you (mainly because they’re trained not to–remember how we discussed earlier the fact that police officers are permitted to lie?) is that by the time you’re sitting in front of the breathalyzer machine, you’re ALREADY going to lose your license for 6 months. When you blow over the limit (and trust me, you will) the State imposes what’s known as an Administrative License Suspension (ALS) and you lose your driver’s license for 3 months right there on the spot. And when you’re convicted of the DUI (and trust me, with a breathalyzer test over the limit, you WILL be), the Court will then convert that ALS into a Court-ordered suspension and make it 6 months. So I ask you, would you rather lose your license for SIX months and hand the State your conviction on a silver platter, or would you rather lose your license for TWELVE months and have a prospect to walk away from this whole ordeal without a DUI on your record (and all the penalties affiliated with that)? The choice is yours. 19. OK, now you’ve been freed from the police station with all your respective documents in hand. What next? This is the easiest one. CONTACT AN ATTORNEY RIGHT AWAY. If you’ve done everything right up to this point, your attorney will have a great deal of ammunition to use versus the Prosecutor, and you’ll leave yourself with a great deal of available options. If you’ve done everything wrong, it won’t matter if you’ve hired the most gifted attorney ever to walk the Earth; he/she will have the capacity to do little more than stand besides you as you receive your conviction. Now, a word regarding hiring an attorney. Make sure it’s someone who actually practices, and has a great deal of experience in the criminal defense/drunk driving defense field. You wouldn’t go to your dentist if you necessitated brain surgery. Don’t hire an individual just because he/she’s cheap and has a degree on the wall behind his/her desk (or he/she’s a family friend, or whatsoever reason). And if you’re agreeably diverting the notion of representing yourself to save a few bucks, just report directly to the jail. You’re not doing yourself any favors. When I was just out of Law School, I had a Judge explain it in a way that I’ll never forget. He said, “A doctor is qualified to remove an appendix, but a doctor would be a damn fool to undertake to remove HIS OWN appendix.” Don’t be a fool. Hire experienced, capable counsel. 20. When you look at your paperwork, you may observe that you’ve been charged with TWO counts of DUI. Don’t panic, this is standard. Basically, there are two statutory code subdivisions that deal with DUI. The firstborn section, likewise known as the per se section, says that you are guilty of DUI when you are found to be operating a vehicle with a prohibited concentration of alcohol in your blood, breath, or urine. The State may prove this section plainly by introducing the results of the breath/urine/blood test you mistakenly submitted to before reading this article (do you see now why you ought to refuse those tests?) The second section, likewise known as the impaired section, says that whether or not you have a prohibited concentration of alcohol in your blood, you were still too impaird to drive. This is how the State is competent to prosecute humans who either refuse the breath/blood/urine test, or who actually test BELOW the legal limit. Here’s what else you will observe in the paperwork. In the officer’s narrative (where the officer writes out “the story” of what happened, in his own words), you’ll see that you were in the first place pulled over for numerous sort of erratic driving (usually weaving or any other number of driving irregularities). You’ll then see that when the officer neared your window, he smelled a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on or regarding your person.” You’ll also see that your eyes were “bloodshot and glassy,” that you fumbled with your license, and that you demonstrated slurred and/or sluggish speech. You’ll likewise see that when you got out of your vehicle, you were unsteady on your feet and swayed noticeably. Then, if you were foolish sufficient to submit to the FSTs, you’ll see notes with regards to how you failed each one of them (the officer will have performed the HGN and noticed all six clues, and you will have no doubt failed both the “Walk And Turn” and the “One-Leg Stand” tests miserably). Can you tell I’ve read hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these arrest reports, and that they all say precisely the same things? There’s a reason for that, you know. The nice police officer is NOT your friend. He/she is trained in precisely what to write in that report that will give the State the best probability to CONVICT you. And that officer is 100% concentered on that ONE and ONLY goal (getting the conviction is all that matters). Don’t give him/her the rope to hang you with. If you do all of these things, you will have set yourself up beautifully to be competent to present a defense. And even if you have no interest in contesting the charge(s) versus you, you’re more likely to negotiate a favorable plea bargain with the Prosecutor if your case appears strong than you would if it’s a slam-dunk winner for the State. So don’t just walk into Court, throw your hands in the air and shout, “Convict me!” Show the Prosecutor that not only are you ready for a fight, but that you’ve got a halfway decent probability of winning that fight (you do that by following the counsel given above and NOT giving the State the rope it needs to hang you). Prosecutors are applied to winning (the scheme is set up for Prosecutors to win the tremendous majority of the time), and they perfectly HATE to lose. Show them you’re ready to go to the mat, and you’ll likely get an beautiful offer out of them. Then, after all the preparation, show up to all your Court dates, resolve your case in the best manner possible, take whatsoever is coming to you (whether it’s a conviction, a dismissal, or anything in between), learn as much as you may from the experience, and get on with your life. By the way, if you take place to come to your senses and find yourself on the road when you recognise you’ve had too much to drink, follow these instructions: without delay pull off the roadway and park the car in a safe place, turn off the engine (turn it off all the way–don’t even leave the battery on so you may listen to the radio and/or run the heater), take the keys out of the ignition and put them someplace far away from you (either the glove box or the trunk or someplace outside the vehicle), creep into the BACK seat and sleep it off. You are considered to be “operating” your vehicle if you’re in the driver’s seat, the engine is running, or you have the capacity to without apparent effort put the car into motion (meaning if the keys are in the ignition, in your pocket, or someplace easy for you to access). The law doesn’t care whether it’s cold and you need the heater to survive, and the law doesn’t care if you need the radio on to sleep. Don’t keep those keys in the ignition for ANY reason. Just try to suffer through it long sufficient to get yourself sober so you may drive home safely. So just do not forget the easy guidelines: get out of the front of the car and into the back, and take the keys out of the ignition and put them someplace nowhere near you. This way you may keep out of the way of being convicted of DUI in spite of the fact that you were TRYING to do the right thing. * DISCLAIMER: Bear in mind that I am only licensed to exercise law in the State of Ohio, and the vast majority of the counsel given is based on my understanding of and experience with Ohio law only. If you have questions with regards to the law in any other State, please contact an attorney licensed to exercise law in that queer State. The State Bar Association ought to be competent to aid you locate an attorney who may help you. However, if you have questions in regards to Ohio law, or if you have a legal matter presently pending versus you in Ohio, please feel free to contact me at jkaufmanlaw@yahoo.com. Likewise, if you know of a topic relating to the law that you would like to see discussed in future blog posts, feel free to e-mail me your suggestions. ** DISCLAIMER: This article is for selective information purposes only. The dissemination and use of the data contained herein is not intended to, and does not, formulate an attorney-client kinship amongst myself and any viewer. Most helpful customer reviews 88 of 88 people found the following review helpful. 86 of 88 people found the following review helpful. The tester is designed to work with various types of 1.5 volt batteries (AAA, AA, C, D, disc or button type). Do not try testing a battery of a higher voltage, as you may fry a resistor, blow a fuse, or otherwise damage the tester. There is a separate set of contacts for testing 9 volt batteries. To precisely measure a battery’s actual output, a voltmeter would be used. A tester like the BT20 only provides a rough idea of battery strength. A new 1.5 volt, non-rechargeable battery, delivering the full 1.5 volts, should read at the top end of the green scale. Rechargeable batteries (AA, AAA, C and D size) are designed to produce only 1.2 volts at full output. Because this is 80 percent of the 1.5 volt maximum the tester is rated for, a NiMH battery will normally read somewhere in the middle of the green section. This may lead some to believe that the battery is `weak’, when it is actually at its full rated power. While a lower reading is normal for a NiMH battery, a 1.5 volt non-rechargeable battery with the same reading, is actually down about 20 percent from full voltage, and may not have that much useful life left. Rechargeable 9 volt batteries are rated at only 7.2 volts, and would similarly produce lower readings, even at full power. If you want a basic tester for 1.5 volt batteries, this is a good choice. If you need more precision, look at a voltmeter or multimeter. 52 of 53 people found the following review helpful. |
Useful product at reasonable price
rechargeable batteries produce lower votage . . . Similar Products To Se Watch Battery Tester
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