Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Attorney Murray Obtains Not Guilty Verdict on OWI-First Offense and Complete Dismissal of Companion Refusal Charge

According to the deputy, KW made an abrupt turn onto a lesser traveled county highway and was traveling at a high rate of speed. He then went onto the gravel shoulder as he turned left onto another county highway with the deputy behind him. He then allegedly drove down the center of the roadway, then weaved within his lane and touched the center line. Upon approaching the vehicle, KW admitted that he drank a few beers. When pressed on what that meant, he said "enough" and then admitted to six, seven or eight beers. He then failed all three field sobriety tests and registered a .196 on the preliminary breath test. After being arrested for OWI, he then refused a blood test and was also charged with Unlawfully Refusing a Chemical Test. On top of this, the Deputy also issued Failure to Maintain Control of Vehicle and Operating Left of Center citations.

Attorney Murray filed several pre-trial motions and the prosecutor ultimately agreed to dismiss the refusal charge because the deputy failed to properly read the Informing the Accused form. Immediately before trial, the prosecutor also dismissed the Failure to Maintain Control of Vehicle citation as they did not believe it could be proven. While the facts of this case seem very bad, Attorney Murray was able to create a picture where the deputy was following KW for no reason, nit picking his observations, not administering the field sobriety test correctly and that sober individuals would have difficulty with the tests. KW had a lot of difficulty with the field sobriety tests. By law, the fat that the preliminary breath test was administered is not admissible at trial. Because the officer failed to comply with the implied consent law, the fact that KW refused was also inadmissible.

It took the jury 45 minutes to find KW Not Guilty of the OWI with no dissenting juror. While KW was convicted of the Operating Left of Center citation, he could not be happier and neither could we.