William B. Mange

Criminal Defense Lawyer in Austin, Texas

Criminal Law Blog

August 17, 2005

Don’t Just Watch The DWI Videotape; Listen To It, Too

Usually, a DWI videotape begins with the police officer pursuing the suspect’s car. Then you hear the officer announcing to dispatch where he is and what he is about to do.

Then you see the officer climb out of his patrol car and walk over to the suspect’s car. Pretty shortly after that, he’ll come back and ask the dispatcher to check the suspect for warrants. After that, you see the officer get back out of his car and conduct field sobriety tests. Often, both prosecutors, defense lawyers, and even defendants themselves will fast forward to where the suspect performed the tests to analyze how the tape will affect the case.

If you do that, you might miss a diamond in the rough.

On one videotape, I listened as an officer (who still had not conducted any field sobriety tests) said he was going to arrest my client for DWI.

What!?!

Aren’t the police supposed to at least ask the suspect to do the tests before they decide whether to arrest him? Well, aren’t they?

Of course they are. This officer just didn’t want to play by the rules.

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William B. Mange

Criminal Defense Lawyer in Austin, Texas

Criminal Law Blog

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