Wednesday, April 25, 2012

April 18, 2012: Make That 13 in 14 Months: Still Another CDL Client Beats Drunk Driving Charge

The case of County of C. v. NLB  marked the 13th time in the last 14 months that a Melowski & Associates CDL client beat a drunk driving charge. It is also the 11th time this year alone that one of our clients has successfully avoided the life-altering consequences of being a convicted drunk driver. There is not a firm in the entire state that can demonstrate this type of success in the field of drunk driving defense.

This case was not an easy one. NLB had been stopped for alleged repeated swerving (caught on camera); allegedly failed the field sobriety tests (also on camera); and ultimately took a blood test that was over the legal limit. Beyond that, the arrest occurred in a county that has been historically tough on drunk drivers and was being prosecuted by an assistant district attorney with significant experience. It's no wonder this case went all the way to a jury trial---almost. On the morning of the jury trial, right before the start of jury selection, Dennis Melowski shared his hand with the prosecutor. Dennis disclosed all of the ammunition he had gathered from his open records request to the lab who did the blood testing. Dennis had sifted through dozens and dozens of lab documents and found significant problems with the gas chromatograph (machine) used to test NLB's blood sample. These problems occurred the very day NLB's sample had been tested. Even the prosecutor acknowledged that he had never seen such problems before. A conviction on the drunk driving charge was in grave doubt. The case was settled on the spot. The drunk driving charges were dropped. Instead, NLB plead no contest to the non-alcohol-related, minor traffic offense of Inattentive Driving. He paid a fine of less than $200.00, but otherwise suffered no consequences. He never lost his license for even a single day and his commercial driving career was saved.