I met David when I was a young 20-something adult and I had bought a brand new airless sprayer from Home Depot. My buddy, Mark, David’s dad, was living in an older home and he said, “hey, come test out that sprayer over there, we’ll have a bar-b-que and drink some beers.” So I took my airless sprayer over there, and we ended up spraying that 1,100 square foot house in one day and it looked brand new. David was only four years old at the time. Almost 30 years later, I get a call from David, and he says, “I need help with a DUI.” I have not heard from David in almost 30 years, so it was kind of a surprise to hear from this young man that I last knew as a young child……
David told me that he was arrested for a DUI, and he did not think it looked good. He said that he was blowing off some steam and he had went to the local bar. I called the DMV to schedule an appointment to fight the license suspension, I received the police report about a month later. When I read the report I thought, boy, this does not look good, the cop wrote in the report that David was swerving over the left double yellow line three full times, and he went over the right white line twice before he pulled him over. David was arrested by California Highway Patrol which has a dash camera system, I subpoenaed the dash camera, and upon reviewing the video, there was some huge surprises. The video disclosed that it looked nothing like the police report that the cop wrote. Remember, the cop wrote that David went over the double yellow line three times and over the white line on the right twice.
This is what the video disclosed. David stopped at a red light, there’s a car behind him, the cop rolls up and he stops, they sit there another 10 seconds. As the light turns green, David proceeds straight. As he proceeds straight, the road dog legs to the right at about 15 degrees, David went straight, and as he got to the yellow line, he adjusted to the right, and continued driving in the middle of the lane. David’s wheels maybe got within two to three inches of the yellow line, but it never went over the yellow line three complete times like the officer wrote in his report. As I watched the video, it also disclosed that David did not go over the right white line even once. Based on the video, David drove completely perfect. He did not speed, did not swerve, and he definitely did not go over the lines as the officer described.
We held the DMV hearing, and I subpoenaed the officer to appear. When he appeared, he testified, and he said exactly what his report said, he said David went over the line three complete lines, his wheel was all the way over the double yellow line on the left, and that he went over the right white line two complete times. When I showed the officer the video, he stated, “oh, the videos can be wrong sometimes. That’s not what I saw that night”, I’ll give credit to that officer, as the country song goes, “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it”. Needless to say, I won the DMV and I saved David’s license. I did not mention that this was David’s third DUI, and his blood alcohol level was 0.17. A loss at the DMV would have required a suspension for a minimum of one year.
We went to court on his case, and I filed what’s called a motion to suppress under penal code 1538.5. Upon filing the motion, I came to court ready with a laptop, a DVD, and I was able to get a seasoned District Attorney who recognized the problem that the officer would have if he was going to take the stand and testify about what he allegedly saw. The DUI was dismissed, and ultimately, this saved David’s job and his license.