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I JUST GOT ARRESTED FOR DUI AND I KNOW I'M GUILTY. SO WHY DO I NEED AN ATTORNEY? By: Dale Gribow As a practicing criminal attorney for over 30 years, the most commonly asked question I receive is “I just got arrested for drunk driving, I’m guilty, why do I need an attorney?” I explain, that a criminal lawyer, makes a distinction between someone committing an act and someone being guilty in the eyes of the law. In order to be guilty of an act, the prosecution must be able to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, all the elements of the criminal act. With a drunk driving, there are often loopholes that a specialist can find. Was there probable cause for the stop? Are there any other explanations for red eyes and slurred speech? Do you wear contacts? Could that have caused your eyes to be red? Do you have a speech impediment or an accent from being from another part of the country? With respect to a drunk driving with an accident: Were you wobbly when you got out of the car because of the alcohol or because you hit your head on the steering wheel? Did you have trouble with the field sobriety tests because you were just not coordinated, was it cold and windy at night, or were you just nervous and had black and white fever. Most women are asked to either take the field sobriety test in their high heels or remove their shoes and thus walk barefoot on concrete, which often has pebbles on the road. Did these pebbles or rocks cause the female defendant to be unable to walk the line as well as she would normally walk the line in tennis shoes? With respect to the tests, did you take a blood or breath test? If a blood test, we can subpoena a sample of your blood from the Department of Justice and have it retested by an expert of our choice. If a breath test, were all of the legal requirements met? Did the officer wait the appropriate amount of time to administer the test? Did he watch you the entire time? Did you belch or burp? Do you have some type of reflux or hiatal hernia problem? Do you have dentures, or did you have some other type of dental work that could have trapped your alcohol, so that when you blew into the breath machine, you were blowing pure alcohol not deep lung air? Has the breathalyzer machine been calibrated recently? Can we subpoena the maintenance records of the breath machine to determine if it had been faulty shortly before or shortly after the date of your testing. These are just some of the questions that a lawyer would look into with respect to a driving under the influence, to determine if the prosecution could meet their burden of proof. There is another important reason to hire a lawyer, even when you are guilty, and that is with respect to working out a reduced plea known as a plea bargain. If you go into the arraignment court and just enter a plea of guilty to the charge, the Judge can then impose whatever sentence he wants. Some Judges are hanging Judges and will put you in jail on a DUI case with no alternatives and some courts like Indio have mandatory jail for a first offense DUI. Sometimes, that case could be plead down to a straight probation and a fine. I got just such a call from a prospective client who had no prior arrests before she was arrested for a DUI. She went to court herself and the Judge gave her 12 days in jail. She did not know she could have obtained home arrest with an ankle bracelet and requested a 12/12 program. This would allow her to work 12 hours and be home 12 hours. There is not much I can do after the fact. Many years ago Robert Shapiro, the lawyer in the O.J. Simpson trial, invited me to meet him in his office before we went out to dinner. We worked on many cases together at the time and he invited me to sit in on one of his criminal interviews. I heard him explain to a client that there are different degrees of success. He said “If I go to Court and they are asking for a year in jail, and I can get you 6 months, that’s success. If I go to Court and the District Attorney is asking for 6 months and I can get you 2 months, that’s success. If the DA is asking for 60 days in jail and I can get you 10 days in jail, that’s success. If the District Attorney wants 10 days in jail and I can get you a weekend or straight probation and a fine, that’s success”. Ever since that night, some 25 years ago, I’ve explained to my clients that there are different degrees of success and that I could not tell them what we could reasonably expect until I saw the police report, reviewed the criminal record, if any, of my client, and talked to the District Attorney. You have to coordinate a case so that you have the right factors present before you plead your client to anything. If you have a Judge that wants to put your client in jail and the District Attorney is willing to give your client a break, you still have a problem. If the District Attorney wants jail, but the Judge is willing to give your client a break, with straight probation, you may still have a problem. That is if you wanted to plead to one count and not to the two or more counts that are charged. You have to get both the Judge and the prosecution to agree to the same terms before you can dispose of the case. This often involves continuing a case for a period of time. As much as the client and the lawyer would like to dispose of the case right away, a case often takes some massaging before you can dispose of it in a favorable light for your client. In other words, “all the stars have to be lined up.” If you have any criminal questions you would like Dale Gribow to answer, please write to him at the Law Offices of Dale Gribow, 44-901 Village Court Suite D, Palm Desert, California 92260. You can also email him or phone him at (760) 341-4411. Dale Gribow is an award winning attorney, who has been practicing criminal law for over 30 years. He initially had a thirty person law firm in Beverly Hills and 17 years ago moved to Palm Desert where he now has an eight person law firm. Dale is prominently listed in over twenty Who’s Who and has been Man of the Year six times, including the City of Palm Desert and the City of Hope. Dale Gribow Day has been declared four times. Dale is also founder/president of Drunk Driving Defenders of the Desert. When Dale Gribow moved to the desert, he was one of three lawyers in all of Riverside County listed in the Bar Register of PreEminent Lawyers for Riverside County. |
