An OWI-7th is very serious business. It is at this level of offense that a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years in prison kicks in. The judge has no authority to give anything less, under any circumstance. And 3 years is just the minimum. The sentence can be increased by several years if the judge thinks it's warranted. This was the dire situation that our client, ME, found himself in when he was picked up for his seventh time. Although it had been several years since his last arrest, and ME had made many positive changes to his life in the interim, that did nothing to lessen the severity of the penalties he was facing if convicted as charged. Knowing that such a lengthy prison sentence would effectively end his life as he knew it, he had to find the best possible attorney to do something about it. After hearing his name from several different people, ME called Dennis Melowski and hired him on the spot.
ME's preliminary hearing is where Dennis laid the groundwork for what would ultimately be the key to ME's outstanding resolution. While many attorneys (even some very reputable ones) routinely waive these hearings, our attorneys rarely do.* They can be very valuable, especially if you can catch a police officer off guard on a key point. ME's case is a textbook example of this. While delving into the reasons for the officer's initial encounter with ME, Dennis got the officer to admit that he approached ME shortly after he exited his vehicle because he believed the vehicle was illegally parked. Only Dennis knew the vehicle was not illegally parked. The officer had a mistaken belief of what the parking statute prohibited. Based on the officer's testimony, Dennis filed a motion to suppress all evidence in ME's case because he had been initially detained illegally...he had done nothing wrong to warrant police questioning in the first place. Dennis filed an additional motion to challenge one of ME's prior convictions based on problems Dennis and his team were able to unearth in a case that was nearly 24 years old.
After months and months of legal wrangling, hearings and negotiations, Dennis was able to negotiate a truly outstanding settlement for ME. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the original drunk driving charges were dropped. In exchange, ME plead no contest to a non-alcohol-related, non-traffic misdemeanor that will not even appear on ME's driver record. ME was simply placed on probation for one year and was ordered to pay a fine, but suffered no other penalties. He did not spend even one day in jail, much less prison, and completely avoided any license loss. It was about the best possible outcome ME could have hoped for and he is absolutely thrilled with the result.
*While there can occasionally be a valid strategic consideration for waiving a preliminary hearing, far too often we have seen lawyers do so for no apparent reason, other than convenience or fear of ruffling a judge's or prosecutor's feathers. This is an example of what separates poor or average lawyers from exceptional ones. Exceptional lawyers are absolutely committed to leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of their client's goals, even if it means sometimes not being the most popular lawyer in the courtroom. Exceptional lawyering is what people have come to expect from our firm and it's what we aim to deliver to every client. Just ask ME.
