Chances of Winning a DUI Jury Trial

[vampiria]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: CA

2 days ago I have stopped by highway patrol. They took me out of the car and they said they have been following me for 2 miles. I'm sure I didn't do anyting wrong while I was driving, and they didn't tell me the reason to stop. I was scared, and paniced, I couldn't answer their questions very well. I couldn't walk on a straight line with my shaking knees. I had the breathalyzer, and they took me to jail. I had another breath test at the station. Neither the cops stopped me nor the ones at the station told me the results.
the next day when I get out I saw .17 BAC on my prisoner's receipt.
I know the exact amount of alcohol I had that night. I had 3 whiskeys on the rocks served by my friend. we took the same glass and measured the amount it takes. Me, my friend, and every other person partied with us that night is %100 sure that I had 7oz. of regular Jack Danels. I'm 180 pounds, 5.10 tall, and I started drinking at 10:30 pm, I have stopped at 2am, and I have taken to jail at 3am.
I tried every single BAC estimators available online and they all estimate my BAC was .08 at arrest time and .07 at jail time.
This is my first DUI charge, I have clean traffic and criminal record. I'm a responsible person, I always stop drinking after 2-3 drinks if I have to drive. Maybe at the time they stopped me my BAC .08, and I would understand if it was a little bit over, but I know it was not .17.
After talking to every attorney in my area I'm thinking to hire Dr. DUI (Mr. Okorocha) to take my case to a jury trial. He doesn't promise me a dismiss, but he says that there is obviously something wrong, and he will go all the way to prove my innocence. If he wins he will deserve every penny I'll pay him. but if he looses in total I will have to pay at leaset 3 times more than if had said 'plead guilty'.
I have to decide very soon, and I don't know what to do. is there anybody experienced enough to give me an advice?

[aaron]

You say that you had a PBT at the roadside and a breath test at the station - both showed 0.17?

[vampiria]

.17 is written on my prisoners receipt. I don't know anyting else because neither the cops stopped me nor the cops at the station told me the the results, and I didn't ask.

[PattyPA]

I sat on a DUI jury once. Guilty.

[vampiria]

any details about your case? was it anything close to mine?

[cdwjava]

The odds of you prevailing on an argument that the machines were wrong is slim to none. Where most DUIs are beaten (in the rare instances they ARE beaten) is on the stop. If there is a lack of reasonable suspicion for the detention and contact, the rest of it goes away. However, this is very rare. Then, they try to fight the officer's capability to adequately perform the FST evaluation and thus form probable cause to make the arrest and obtain the test. When both those fail, then comes the very expensive battle of the experts and these rarely work and are very expensive. You are going to have to pay for an expert or experts to march in and challenge the maintenance and the accuracy of the device used to test your breath or blood.

The chances of you convincing a jury that you only had enough alcohol to give you a .08 as compared to .17 is slim to none. Now, that being said, if the state thinks this is going to be a long, tough case to make, they might offer you a deal to drop the aggravated factor of the high BAC. It's not much, but it might be something.

But, hey, if you have the money and it is worth the money to roll the dice and attempt to beat the rap, then go for it.

[vampiria]

Thank you for the information. I think you're right, sucsess stories are written only on lawyers' websites. I was looking to hear from a real person, and it looks like there is none. Ill just say plead guilty for a crime I didn't commit.

[PattyPA]

We're real people.

[cdwjava]

Thank you for the information. I think you're right, sucsess stories are written only on lawyers' websites. I was looking to hear from a real person, and it looks like there is none. Ill just say plead guilty for a crime I didn't commit.

Now, I did not say that, but, the odds of the machine being incorrect are slim to none. You may not have intended to drive DUI, but it is apparent that you did so. A decent attorney can likely minimize the impact through a plea deal, and there is always the SLIM possibility that there is a problem with the maintenance or the calibration of the device used for the test depending on the device used. An attorney can help leverage any possible errors into a plea deal if that is where you want to go.

Also understand that online calculators do not account for all aspects of alcohol absorption. They can't. We all absorb alcohol differently and at different rates depending on metabolism, food consumption, gender, body fat, etc. They also do not take into account when the alcohol was consumed in the calculation and generally assume an even distribution of alcohol over the time period you enter. In reality, most people do not drink evenly - they often drink heavily at the beginning or the end, and if at the end, then their BAC can rise quickly, but it drops at an even, relatively steady rate no matter what and this purge level is most often at about .015 per hour.

Many people also underestimate their alcohol consumption as one of the first things to go when you consume alcohol is judgement. There was research done some years back that indicated that many people that drink socially underestimate how much they have consumed by as much as 50%. That is not always true, but most of us tend to downplay or underestimate our consumption for an assortment of reasons, including fuzzy or unreliable memory.

In any event, you should certainly consult an attorney about your options.

[cbg]

Thank you for the information. I think you're right, sucsess stories are written only on lawyers' websites. I was looking to hear from a real person, and it looks like there is none. Ill just say plead guilty for a crime I didn't commit.

Who do you think is answering if not real people? Robots?