Imagine for a moment that you have come to a stop at the corner of North Hayden Road and East McDowell. The light turns to green and you drive forward for a moment until you hear a blast from a police car siren. You glance up into your rear-view mirror and see that a Scottsdale police officer is right behind you with his cruiser’s lights on.
After you pull over and talk with the officer for a while, you are arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. While this situation can seem hopeless, you contact a criminal defense attorney and carefully go over the details of the stop and arrest and learnthat the stop was improper.
A lawyer experienced in DUI defense then explains to the court that the officer lacked probable cause to make the traffic stop. The drunk driving charge is then reduced or dismissed and your life then returns to normal.
If you have been pulled over by an officer who did not have a legitimate reason, the court is likely to then rule that any evidence obtained during and after the improper stop is inadmissible. That would include any possibly incriminating statements, breath test results, blood test results, the results of a roadside sobriety test and so on.
Officers can’t pull you over on a hunch that you’re drunk just because you pulled out of a bar’s parking lot, for instance, or because it’s late at night. The officer needs a reasonable suspicion that you have committed a traffic violation.
There are a number of effective drunk driving defenses that can result in reduced or dismissed charges. Talk over the evidence and charges with a Scottsdale lawyer experienced in defending your freedom and constitutional rights.
