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Discrepancies in police reports recently led to the dismissal of charges of driving while impaired that had been filed against a woman in Brunswick County, North Carolina. The charges apparently arose after the woman encountered a police officer outside the Sunset Beach Police Department.

The officer later testified in court concerning the allegations. The DWI defense lawyer handling the case noted discrepancies between the officer’s testimony and what was written in typed police reports concerning the allegations.

Authorities had accused the woman of driving to the police station while impaired last May. However, her son says that she was standing outside the station speaking with officers when the arresting officer drove up to the station and arrested the mother for DWI—that is while standing and talking with other officers.

The officer later testified in court that he approached the woman in her car and spoke to her while she sat in the vehicle. The police reports apparently showed discrepancies with that testimony. The DWI case was appealed the district court proceeding for a trial before a jury in Superior Court.

Ultimately, the DWI charges were dismissed. The arrested Sunset Beach Police officer was suspended after police brass met with the DA’s office. The police chief announced the suspension after the meeting—authorities determined that an ethical issue may have been involved in the odd testimony.

DWI charges can carry harsh consequences. But allegations that a driver was impaired behind the wheel are merely allegations. A person accused of DWI has the right to challenge the charges in court. The state is not entitled to a conviction without proof beyond a reasonable doubt on all the elements of a crime.

Source: WECT, “Conflicting reports surround investigation into Sunset Beach Police officer.” April 30, 2013 WWAY, “Defense attorney says issue that led to officer’s suspension something he’s never seen,” Brandon Taylor, April 29, 2013

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

Any criminal defendant has the right to defend against the charges in a court of law. Our system of criminal justice places burdens upon the government that are intended to protect the rights of the innocent against unreasonable government intrusion, and also to protect against making out court system seem like a sort of kangaroo court.

Monday, a judge in Mecklenburg County threw out charges of driving while impaired that had been filed against the former chief of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. The man had been arrested on suspicion of DWI in May.

The process following the man’s arrest was flawed, the judge essentially ruled Monday. The man was put in jail, and a magistrate had given the accused an unsecured bond at 1:15 in the morning May 23. The judge ruled that following the magistrate’s decision at 1:15 a.m., the accused should have been released from custody within an hour, according to WCNC News.

The man sat in jail until 4:34 in the morning before authorities allowed his release. The judge ruled that the three hour delay was too long and dismissed the DWI charges.

Generally, a person accused of DWI faces allegations generated by the state. For instance, in a North Carolina DWI case, the arresting officer would be expected to testify as to the officer’s observations of the defendant. But a person who is detained for an unreasonable amount of time after being given unsecured bond is denied the chance to meet with people who are not associated with police. The loss of that opportunity can deny the person accused of drunk driving to have others testify to refute the officer’s opinion.

In North Carolina, DWI charges can come with two prongs. Most people know that the legal limit to drive is set at 0.08 percent BAC. But flaws with the testing can produce inaccurate results. Similarly, a person who is unreasonably denied access to gathering evidence in defense of the charges may certainly be denied a fair opportunity to present a defense.

In the recent Mecklenburg County case, law enforcement claims that the man accused of DWI refused to submit to a breath test. The state apparently was relying solely upon the arresting officer’s opinion that the man had been drinking before driving.

The charges arose after an alleged hit-and-run crash in stop-and-go traffic in Interstate 77. Authorities say that another person called 911 after the alleged fender bender, claiming that the defendant had said everything was okay and drove away from the scene. The hit-and-run charge remains pending, as the judge’s dismissal only pertained to the DWI charge.

Source: WCNC, “Judge dismisses DWI charge against CRVA’s former chief executive,” Gary L. Wright, Nov. 5, 2012

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

Greenville DWI defense and underage alcohol defense lawyers know that law enforcement agencies in North Carolina commonly set up focused enforcement operations surrounding public events to enforce DWI and underage drinking laws. This weekend’s 2012 Azalea festival in Wilmington was no exception.

North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents issued citations or arrested 261 people over the weekend during the annual Azalea Festival. ALE officials say that a large number of the citations involved underage drinking during the enforcement operation that began Thursday and ran through Saturday. A total of 308 charges were brought against 261 people.

Underage drinking tickets can be somewhat confusing for many people. Because North Carolina law brings all criminal charges against a person who is at least 16-years-old in adult court, many people are later caught off guard when they learn that paying such a ticket is the equivalent of a criminal conviction that is entered of the person’s permanent adult criminal record.

ALE officials say that 107 people were charged with underage possession offenses during the weekend festival. In addition to the underage alcohol charges against individuals, two businesses were accused of providing alcohol to a minor, and those allegations reportedly were sent on to the North Carolina ABC Commission for review.

During the weekend event, 15 people were charged with using a fake ID. In North Carolina, mere possession of a fake ID is a criminal offense.

Fifteen people were charged with possession of marijuana at the festival. ALE officials accuse five people of driving while impaired surrounding the event. The DWI cases reportedly were turned over to the State Highway Patrol.

Source: Star News, “More than 260 arrested, cited during Azalea Festival,” April 16, 2012

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

North Carolina authorities reportedly have charged a 13-year-old girl with driving while impaired after an alleged car accident in Woodland earlier this month. Three people were reportedly injured in the crash, but officials say all are expected to be fine. Investigators claim the young woman drove a vehicle onto highway 35 and was involved in a car accident with another vehicle.

The allegations say that the 13-year-old had been at a party before getting behind the wheel. Greenville underage drinking defense lawyers are aware that North Carolina law allows the state to proceed with DWI charges against anyone under the age of 21 based upon any evidence of alcohol consumption.

Underage DWI charges in the state do not necessarily involve evidence of a 0.08 percent alcohol level for the presumption of impairment that may be brought in adult cases.

In addition to the 13-year-old, at least one other person is facing criminal charges related to the allegations that night. North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents have charged a Northampton County man with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, giving a malt beverage to a person under the age of 21 and aiding and abetting underage possession of alcohol by a minor.

ALE investigators say that further charges against other individuals may come as an investigation into the alleged party continues. Agents claim that two 14-year-olds and an 18-year-old are believed to have been at the alleged party, in addition to the 23-year-old accused of a slate of charges and the 13-year-old who is facing the DWI charges.

Source: KTLA, “13-year-old charged with DWI after head-on collision,” Mar. 12, 2012

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

Every American is entitled to the protections afforded by the United States Constitution and the constitution of the state they are in. These protections are especially important to people who are suspected of a crime.

The violation of a criminal suspect’s constitutional rights can seriously impair the state’s ability convict the suspect of a crime. Recently, a North Carolina judge threw out a DWI charge because the suspect was not allowed to have a DWI defense lawyer present when he took his breath test.

The suspect in the case was a captain in the Thomasville Police Department. In early December, he was pulled over at a DWI checkpoint on the Interstate 95 Business Loop in High Point.

There, the High Point police requested that the man submit to a Breathalyzer sobriety test. He requested that his attorney be present for the test. He then called his lawyer, who indicated that he would be willing to travel to the DWI checkpoint to observe the Breathalyzer.

The High Point Police denied the man’s request and refused to wait for the attorney to arrive. The man then submitted to the Breathalyzer and blew a 0.08. Under North Carolina law, a person is considered to be legally intoxicated – and thus in violation of the state’s DWI law – if his or her blood alcohol content is 0.08 or higher.

Although the Breathalyzer results showed that the man was probably guilty of driving while intoxicated, the test could not be used as evidence against him. According to the judge, the High Point Police violated the man’s constitutional rights when they refused to allow him to have his attorney present. Evidence collected using procedures that violate a criminal suspect’s constitutional rights is not admissible in court.

Since there was no other evidence that could convict the man, the judge had no choice but to dismiss his case.

Source: The Dispatch, “DWI Charge on TPC Captain Dismissed,” David Bodenheimer & Darrick Ignasiak, Jan. 27, 2012.

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

A conviction for DWI in North Carolina can result in serious consequences, including a potential impact on your driving privilege. Wilkesboro Police claim they received a tip that a man was potentially driving a scooter while impaired. A police officer reportedly responded to the area. The officer says he saw a man on a scooter, and eventually pulled the man over on suspicion of driving while impaired.

The police officer claims he followed the man driving the scooter for a period of time. Police claim the man sped through a stop sign on one street, and drove through two more before the officer decided to activate his siren.

Once the officer activated the siren, the man on the scooter pulled over. The Wilkesboro Police officer says he smelled the odor of alcohol when he was interacting with the man. The officer claims the scooter rider apologized for speeding and running through the stop signs.

According to police, the 43-year-old man on the scooter refused to perform a field sobriety test. Apparently the man submitted to a breath test at a later time. However, police say the test registered 0.06 percent blood alcohol concentration, under the North Carolina legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Nonetheless, police apparently impounded the scooter and charged the man with driving with a revoked license and reckless driving. Police claim the man’s license had been revoked due to prior DWI convictions.

North Carolina law has a variety of provisions that allow for suspension or revocation of a driver’s license. Future charges can increase difficulties in getting a driver’s license reinstated. The law on licensing is complex in North Carolina. Greenville and Pitt County area residents can speak with an experienced defense attorney who is well-versed in suspended and revoked licenses to learn what options may be available in recovering his or her driving privilege in the state.

Source: WXII The Triad, “Police: Officer Stops Scooter Driver On DWI Suspicion,” Oct. 5, 2011

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

Rowan County Commissioner appeared in court Monday and entered a guilty plea to his DWI charge. The allegations arose May 8 when police accused the man of drunk driving after a car accident. The county commissioner refused to submit to a breath test. Law enforcement reportedly took the man to Rowan Regional Medical Center for a forced blood draw.

The accused reportedly had a prior DWI conviction on his record from 2008. He reportedly entered into a negotiated plea agreement with prosecutors. The Rowan County District Attorney’s office agreed to dismiss charges for driving left of center and failing to maintain control in the plea agreement.

A visiting judge from Guilford County presided at the hearing Monday. Local judges know or are familiar with the commissioner, so a visiting judge heard the case. Prosecutors sought jail time at sentencing. The prosecutor argued the commissioner had a prior conviction, was in a car accident and measured 0.21 percent BAC after the crash.

The accused has been attending inpatient treatment for alcohol. The judge ultimately rejected the prosecutor’s request for jail. The judge gave the commissioner credit for the inpatient treatment and sentenced the commissioner to two years of unsupervised probation for the DWI conviction. The man was also fined ,000. The judge said the fine was higher than he normally would impose. The judge said the elected county official should be held to a higher standard of behavior than other North Carolina residents. The commissioner will be subjected to a psychological assessment as a part of the sentence.

The judge ordered the man to surrender his driver’s license. Greenville DWI defense attorneys are aware that license suspension or revocations can occur in relation to DWI charges in the state.

Source: Salisbury Post, “Barber sentenced on DWI charge,” Shavonne Potts, Aug. 16, 2011

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

A Marine captain who served four tours of combat duty and suffered serious head injuries had been charged with DWI. While the case does not arise in North Carolina, the issues involved in the case are receiving national attention. The Marine captain was allegedly involved in a fatal drunk driving accident in April and now vehicular manslaughter charges in Florida.

The Marine was scheduled for trial earlier this month on the allegations that he was involved in the fatal drunk driving crash, however, that trial has been delayed as the evidence mounts that the Marine suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Marine captain is seeking to defend against the vehicular manslaughter charges based upon his PTSD.

The combat veteran earned three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star during at least four tours of duty with the Marine Corps. He witnessed many deaths while serving his country overseas, nearly died from blood loss during combat, suffered head trauma and once dug a mass grave for civilians in Iraq.

The DWI defense includes evidence that the 38-year-old marine was having a “dissociative episode” at the time of the fatal car accident and that the Marine believed he was on military deployment at the time of the crash. A psychologist who specializes in PTSD says blackouts, or dissociative episodes are common for those who suffer from PTSD.

Marine officials wrote an 860-page report on the Marine. The report acknowledges that the Marine Corps should have been more thorough in evaluating the captain’s condition before the accident occurred. The Marine was evaluated after he suffered serious injury in a rocket attack in Iraq in 2009. Rescuers who first arrived at the blast site believed the Marine was dead.

The Marine’s direct Command believed he may have been suffering from PTSD after the attack. He was given an assessment and cleared for full duty. The Marine continued to show symptoms of PTSD after being cleared, but wanted to return to his battalion in Afghanistan. Instead he was ordered to serve at MacDill Air Force Base. Two days after arriving in the state, and before he was to report at the base, the accident occurred, according to news reports.

The 860-page Marine Corps report says the choice to send the captain to MacDill “left him feeling disappointed and abandoned, and exacerbated the symptoms of his PTSD.”

Source: AP via ABC News, “Marine Claims Brain Trauma Led to Fatal DUI Crash,” Tamara Lush, Sept. 23, 2011

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

Many drunk driving cases start with an investigation of some other alleged traffic violation. While many Pitt County DWI stories in the news start with talk of a traffic stop based upon allegations of reckless driving or weaving, other cases may start with a broken tail light, or allegations of speeding. A recent story comes from Burke County and Caldwell County.

A Burke County deputy says he saw a woman throw a cup out the window of her car during the middle of the day. The deputy says he turned on his lights and pulled the car over. The woman reportedly stopped and got out of her car and yelled to the deputy it was an emergency situation.

The deputy says the woman got back in her car and sped off. The woman reportedly drove to the highway and continued on as the officer followed in chase. The woman is said to have crossed over the county line, entering Caldwell County where she was forced to stop at a red light at a busy intersection.

Law enforcement from Caldwell County and the deputy from Burke County say they surrounded the woman’s vehicle at the intersection. The officer originally intended to give the woman a littering ticket roughly 15 minutes before the multiple officers surrounded her car in Caldwell County.

The woman reportedly told the News Herald she was driving to the hospital where her mother was having a heart attack. She did not want to stop and risk not seeing her mother.

After the incident, the woman has been charged with DWI, failure to stop for blue light and sirens, open container and littering.

Source: Morgantown News Herald, “Trash toss leads to chase, third DWI,” Matthew Hensley, Aug. 19, 2011

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

A Morgantown woman was pulled over early Saturday morning on suspicion of drunk driving. A North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper says he saw her vehicle driving erratically. The trooper claims the woman nearly ran into the side of a bridge while trying to exit Interstate 40 around 12:35 a.m. Saturday. The woman apparently spoke to the trooper during the North Carolina DWI traffic stop.

The trooper claims during the traffic stop, the woman said her boyfriend had kidnapped her children. The trooper called in an investigator from the Morgantown Department of Public Safety to look into the kidnapping incident. Police claim the woman’s blood-alcohol content measured .19 after the traffic stop.

The woman was charged with a number of charges, including DWI, failure to maintain lane control, driving with a revoked license, using a fictitious tag, borrowing a license plate and having an open container. Law enforcement released the woman Saturday.

Authorities continued an investigation into the potential kidnapping. Matters became worse for the woman during the day Saturday. The Department of Public Safety investigator claims the woman dropped her children off at a friend’s house and was stopped early Saturday en route to picking up her kids. By Saturday evening, authorities arrested the woman at her home on allegations of a false police report and two counts of child abuse.

The woman was booked into jail on ,000 bond with a court date scheduled for Tuesday. Monday night the DWI charges became more severe. The trooper reported signed an arrest warrant Monday night charging the woman with habitual impaired driving. Police now claim the woman has three prior DWI convictions on her record dating from 2008 and 2009.

In North Carolina any allegations of DWI are serious matters. Prior convictions on a driver’s record can significantly increase the penalties for a new DWI charge. Greenville and Pitt County residents can help to protect their constitutional rights by speaking with an experienced DWI defense attorney any time allegations of DWI arise.

Source: The News Herald, “Mom charged with habitual DWI,” Matthew Hensley Aug. 10, 2011

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm