Some people believe if they test over the legal limit there is very little a lawyer can do for them. Many times they are wrong.
Our client was charged with OWI /PAC 2nd for running a yellow light. The driving was on video and it was clear that the client did, in fact, run the light. The client told the officer that he ran the light and just wanted to get home. The client then refused to perform field sobriety tests or a preliminary breath test. The client was immediately arrested and taken for a breath test which registered at 0.082.
The defendant hired Chirafisi & Verhoff and we went to work. First, a review of the video indicated that while the client did refuse both the field sobriety tests and the preliminary breath test, but he did so after asking the officer if he could decline. The officer told him “yes,” he did not have to do the tests.
Chirafisi & Verhoff then did something they don’t do in every case--but believed was appropriate for this case--they hired an expert to discuss both the workings of the breath machine and to put on evidence of an alcohol curve. Once that was done and the notice of the expert was provided to the government, the State dismissed both the OWI and PAC charges.