Arrested For DUI When You Were Sober As A Judge? 4 Steps To Prove Your Innocence
A DUI (Driving Under the Influence) is a serious charge that can impact your entire life, from your ability to drive to and from work to losing your standing in community and civic organizations or even your freedom. A conviction can really cost you, but if you're actually innocent, how do you go about proving it? Are you presumed guilty, because drunk driving is so rampant in America? Can you ever recover your good name? It's a confusing and scary time; however, if you handle yourself accordingly and have a good DUI attorney by your side, you should come out of the situation intact.
1. Don't Take This Personally
Although it's your good name and entire life on the line here, don't take your DUI charges personally. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that more defendants are guilty than not and police and prosecutors spend their entire careers going after the dangerous drivers who kill people. The scene of DUI accidents are tragic and horrific, giving you an understanding of why the police are often so vehement in their pursuit of offenders.
You are innocent, yes, but don't take this personally; take the perspective of the professionals protecting the general population from drunk drivers and you'll have a better understanding. Then, you can take up the fight to defend your good name and get your life back on track.
2. Question All Police Conduct
From not having a valid reason for pulling you over in the first place to failing to administer the breathalyzer properly, there's a huge margin for error when it comes to police conduct during a DUI investigation and subsequent arrest. Write every detail of the incident down on paper, so you don't forget anything, and go over each detail with your attorney. The police are held to a high standard of integrity and you have many rights that could have been violated. Although you don't want to "bash" the police or disrespect due process, you should thoroughly question everything that transpired and brought you to where you are now.
3. Examine All The Evidence
Evidence must also pass many tests of integrity, just like police conduct. You and your criminal defense lawyer need to go through all of the evidence submitted against you, questioning it as representative of fact and whether or not it can withstand scientific scrutiny. Your case could be dismissed if the evidence doesn't stand up and if you are innocent, there should be some crack in the prosecution's case that proves it.
4. Defend Your Actions, Whatever May Have Caused Them
Sometimes, people have medical and other types of conditions which cause them to appear intoxicated or otherwise not in control of their driving. Low blood pressure or low blood sugar, for example, make you feel dizzy and light-headed and if either occurs while you're driving, you could easily be mistaken for someone who has been drinking. Inner-ear imbalances might also leave you looking uncoordinated or impaired as a driver, so think long and hard about what the police may have seen in you that didn't actually involve alcohol.
Medical conditions could also be responsible for a failed breathalyzer, no matter how reliable science claims the device to be. Something as simple as acid-reflux could contaminate the analysis, framing you as being beyond the legal limit, when in reality, you never touched a drop of alcohol. Talk about all of these possibilities with your lawyer and you're bound to come up with the logical explanation as to why you've been mistaken as a drunk behind the wheel and how you can legally overcome any evidence against you.
A DUI, even when you're innocent, is a difficult experience to get through. As hard as it may seem, though, when you and your attorney know you're innocent and have a plan to prove it, you should be able to put this all behind you, hopefully resuming a normal life as soon as possible.
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