State vs. (Client will remain Anonymous)
Eagleswood Municipal Court, Ocean County
Result achieved on Wednesday, May 22, 2013
This was a fascinating case. The client was charged with DWI, Refusal, and underlying motor vehicle charges. It was a State Police case. This means that the client’s matter contained a Mobile Video Recorder (MVR). The MVR did not reveal any erratic driving. This differed from the State Trooper’s written narrative. Moreover, there were no field sobriety test results since the client declined to perform them.
After his arrest, the client agreed to provide breath samples. However, he experienced extreme anxiety at this point and advised the State Trooper that he required immediate medical attention. The client felt that he was experiencing a cardiac event. The State Trooper felt that the client was faking such symptoms. Ultimately, emergency medical services transported him to a local hospital. After the transport, the State Trooper left the client in the care of the hospital.
The strategy in this case was to obtain medical records from both the hospital and the client to support his assertion that he was physically unable to provide breath samples upon request. Furthermore, an expert’s report was obtained which emphasized that there was no erratic driving, no performance of field sobriety tests, no behavior consistent with DWI, and a medical inability to provide breath samples.
The Defense in this client’s case was very specific to the facts presented. Simply put, it was that this client was not under the influence of intoxicating liquor and that he could not provide breath samples on this particular occasion. The Defense was not that this client could never provide breath samples. Rather this client could not provide breath samples at that particular moment in time.
This case resulted in a dismissal of the client’s DWI and Refusal charges. He plead guilty to Reckless Driving.
This was an extremely well-executed strategy for this particular client’s fact pattern. It was specific to the State’s discovery, the MVR, and information obtained from the client. This was state of the art advocacy.
