OWI
Jack came to me for help with his 4th OWI. From a reading of the criminal complaint against him it did not “look good.” He had a high blood alcohol content and it appeared that the Police Officer had “reasonable suspicion” to stop him due to the Officer seeing him swerving in his lane of traffic. After being hired, I suggested to Jack that we motion the court for a suppression hearing and just see how positive the young cop was that my client was “swerving.” My practice is to never put my client on the stand. However, the young officer did testify. As he answered the District Attorney’s questions, he added “and the Defendant swerved again at Drew Street.” When it came time to cross examine the Officer, one of my first questions was, “Why didn’t your report indicate my client swerved again at Drew Street?” His answer was “I forgot to put it in the report.” But naturally, he remembered it today, months later. We viewed the video tape of the stop from the Officer’s squad car. And guess what- THERE WAS NO SWERVING AT DREW STREET! The Circuit Court Judge was a very thoughtful Judge and listened to the prosecutor’s and my closing arguments. The Judge called a recess to think about his forthcoming decision, in light of all the evidence. The Judge returned to the bench. The Judge “granted our motion to suppress the evidence.” My client turned to me and asked, “What just happened?” I responded, “You just won your case- it’s over, the evidence was suppressed!” Like a kid in a toy store, his face lit up and he said “Holy S–T! HAD WE NOT MOTIONED FOR THE SUPPRESSION HEARING, AND CHALLENGED THE STOP, WE WOULD HAVE NEVER KNOWN OF THE OMMITTED REPORT OF SWERVING AT DREW ST.- WHICH ULTIMATELY DISCREDITED THE OFFICER AND STOP AND WON THE CASE.