How long does it take for the lab to say “Dammit, stop bothering us, we’ve tested his samples 15 times, there is nothing in it! And now there’s nothing left to test.”
That is the far more sinister action that should be questioned, certainly. It ain’t happening very much in the article or this thread, though. Everyone is fixated on the smokescreen of caffeine.
If the person was driving recklessly, then they should be charged with whatever the local reckless driving law is.
But you shouldn’t be charged with DUI just because you’re a shitty driver, right?
It looks to me like at the roadside they assumed he was on something based on the erratic way he was driving and possibly the sobriety tests administered, so they charged him with DUI (and reckless driving) and took a proper blood sample back at the jail. Isn’t that how it usually goes? You need some reason to arrest and jail the person so you list what you think he did at the time. Charges get dropped all the time after the fact when the evidence doesn’t pan out. The only odd thing here seems to be how long it took. I’d chalk that up to the DA’s office being too busy to get around to it or a mis-communication by someone about what to pursue or not. I’d guess it’s easy enough to not have a good answer off the top of your head for a question on some obscure case you have in your workload when someone sticks a microphone in your face.
I don’t think anyone was actually stupid here, the timing just coincidently makes it look like it. As for the guy’s reputation and good name being tarnished, well, I think he’s SOL. And lots of people are shitty drivers and make stupid decisions behind the wheel despite being stone cold sober… it’s just that a pretty good percentage of those driving really bad are actually on something, so it’s not an unreasonable assumption to make.