August 30, 2011: Complete Acquittal in OWI-1st Case

At the jury trial of City of M. v. S.B., Dennis Melowski was able to convince a jury to find his client Not Guilty of both Operating a Motor Vehicle While Intoxicated and Operating a Motor Vehicle with a Prohibited Alcohol Concentration. Despite having to contend with a .12 breath test result, a squad video and several alleged admissions of guilt by his client, Dennis was able to severely undermine the arresting officer's credibility during cross-examination. This was done by showing significant contradictions between the officer's trial testimony and his testimony at prior hearings, as well as using the officer's own squad video to disprove some of the officer's claims about his client. What's more, Dennis had done an extensive background check of the machine used to test his client's breath and was able to expose several problems with its reliability. In the end, the jury took only 12 minutes to reach their decision. Afterwards, four of the jurors approached Dennis outside the courtroom to ask him for his business card. Most importantly, though, Dennis' client walked out of the courthouse completely exonerated!   

August 22, 2011: OWI-3rd Reduced to Inattentive Driving

In State of Wisconsin v. K.S., Dennis Melowski convinced the prosecutor to reduce the original charge of OWI-3rd to Inattentive Driving and to dismiss the remaining charge of PAC-3rd (.173 blood test result). The reduced charge of Inattentive Driving is a non-alcohol-related, minor traffic offense that involves no suspension or revocation of driving privileges. The client paid a fine of $287.90, but otherwise suffered no consequences from his arrest. If convicted of either of the original charges, the client would have been been sentenced to several months in jail; would have had his license revoked for two to three years; would have had to install an ignition interlock in all of his vehicles; would have paid a fine nearly 10 times the fine he ended up with; and would have had to complete lengthy counseling. Most significantly, the client was facing lifetime disqualification of his commercial driving privileges. The fantastic result achieved in this case saved the client's lifelong career of commercial driving. He couldn't be happier!