The 2022 holiday season is going to be bustling all over Colorado! With most Coloradans no longer concerned about COVID 19 transmission, the malls will be bustling for the next few months. So also will be the restaurants, bars, and holiday parties. And at these parties will be no shortage of alcohol.
Colorado law enforcement will also be out in full force making as many DUI arrests as they can of people who try to drive home after drinking. Adams county, Jefferson county, Denver, Arapahoe county ... all have vowed to aggressively make DUI arrests this season.
Many Colorado drivers believe they are okay to drive home after a "couple of drinks." Many are probably right, and they get home just fine.
Many experience that bone-chilling moment when they look into their rearview mirror and see a police officer who wants them to pull over.
Many people believe stopping at only a few will keep them from being arrested for DUI. An adult driver who stops at 3 or 4 drinks may be under .08 BAC, but Colorado has another charge called Driving While Ability Impaired (DWAI) that considers any driver over .05 to be impaired also. A smaller sized driver, or a driver drinking strong drinks could be over .05 at only two drinks.
The best practice this holiday season is to attend all the parties you like, but one friend or family member should be a non-drinking designated driver. Even a "couple" can get a driver into handcuffs and in need of a DUI defense lawyer.
Back to the bone chilling roadside experience... The DUI officer will first want to look at your eyes. Colorado DUI officers are trained to look for signs in your eyes that they believe will tell them how much you have had to drink. There are scientific attacks to this eyeball test that only the best DUI lawyers in Denver know how how to make, but this will not help you on the side of the road.
After the fake science eyeball test, the DUI officer will ask for some roadside acrobatics. A you will be required to walk heel to toe down a line and then balance on one foot for 30 seconds. Studies have shown that DUI police officers fail about half of completely sober people after administering these exercises. Colorado officers are prompted to testify in court that any imperfections on the "sobriety" acrobatics show that the driver did not perform "as a sober person would have performed." There is no science that justifies this statement. A driver defending these acrobatics must have a Colorado DUI lawyer who knows science.
After the acrobatics, a driver suspected of DUI will often be asked to blow into a roadside portable alcohol breath test. There is no legal requirement for a driver to blow into these roadside breath tests. These little plastic machines are so inaccurate, results are not even admissible in court. Colorado DUI officers will always document the results of these machines in their reports, even though they know the results are not lawful evidence of anything.
The last event that happens on the side of the road is a Colorado DUI officer telling the driver that they must choose between a breath test of a blood test. Colorado DUI officers very commonly will leave out any mention that under the United States Constitution, the driver has the right to decline consent for a search of their breath or blood. The Colorado Express Consent rules are the topic of its own blog discussion.
GET THE BEST DUI LAWYER YOU CAN
The tactics and tools used by Colorado DUI officers to make arrests and prosecute cases all compromise either the principles of forensic science or fly on the gray edges of Constitutional protections. Average criminal defense lawyers who do "a little of this" and "a little of that" will not have the expertise needed to win a complex DUI case. Only specifically trained attorneys who are the best in the DUI defense field should be trusted to defend you in a Colorado DUI arrest.