I was involved in a car accident and was told that I got a DUI by an officer.
I was not issued a ticket from the police department stating any kind of violation.
I WAS issued a paper from the DMV that has a box checked that my license had been “surrendered”.
The box on the same DMV paper that says 0.08% or more BAC Chemical Tests Results was NOT checked.
The only other paperwork that I received is for the impound where my totaled car was taken.
So my question is this. If I did actually get a DUI then shouldn’t I have an actual ticket. Shouldn’t I have been taken directly to jail. And shouldn’t at the very least that box on the DMV paper been checked???
How long ago was this? They don’t need .08% to get you, you can still be impaired under that. However, it doesn’t sound like you went to court, so will that come up in the future or not? Bottom line, if this is recent, then you should call the PD or court. Maybe you’ll get a mess of paperwork in the mail soon.
IANALawyer, and I don’t live anywhere near California.
It sounds like they have you down for driving under the influence of something other than alcohol. Just because the officer thought you were impaired, that doesn’t necessarily mean he thought you were drunk. DUI only means “under the influence,” which includes alcohol, but also includes impairments caused by legal prescriptions (vicodin/morphine/etc) and illegal drugs (weed, LSD, etc). There may not be an easy drug test for what he suspected you were influenced by. But they impounded your car and they took your license. That is not standard operating procedure for a non-DUI offense–if it was just a total loss accident with no DUI involved, you would still have your license and you would just be filing an insurance claim. So it’s pretty safe to say that they’re going to stick you with a DUI violation, even though you didn’t get a ticket or hauled off to jail on the spot.
The biggest question is, of course, whether you were actually under the influence of any mind-altering substance at the time. If you failed a field sobriety test (did the officer conduct one?), that’s not going to help your case. You’re probably going to need an attorney, regardless, because the cop *told you *he put you down for DUI–that means you’re going to have to talk to a judge within a few weeks. Get an attorney once they mail you your court date.
Call the court or police department and ask if you were charged with anything. Hopefully, you can just give your name and they can look you up in the system.
If they are charging you with DUI (alcohol or otherwise), lawyer up. A good DUI attorney should know the ins and outs of California traffic law and LA procedure much better than any of us and hopefully can find a way to attack the prosecution’s case. Honestly, it’s really impossible for us to know whether you are actually guilty - you might be innocent as a matter of law!
And also, you don’t “get” a DUI summarily afaik, you get ticketed and then you can insist it goes to trial (don’t miss the court date!).
The officer called your mother? This is “the” LA, right, not a small town?
You need a lawyer. Tell the lawyer everything you told us and answer his questions. He will be able to tell you if you stand a chance in court or if you should plead out. They are trained for this.
No coffee yet this morning, so I’m a bit confused. Are you denying you were drunk/impaired? It sounds like you don’t even remember doing a breathalyzer test.
Why did the officer call your mom from the scene? Were you too impaired to have a coherent conversation with the cop?
How old are you?
My WAG is each state/county/town/jurisdiction has its own procedures for this sort of thing. if you blew a .18 on on a breathalyzer but didn’t get a ticket or any other paperwork at the scene, expect something in the mail soon.
Are you trying to get a very obvious case of drunk driving thrown out on a likely mistaken belief that there was a transcribing error on one of the forms? Laff.
Man, there is a lot more to the story than OP has told us. I hope you come back with a longer narrative, JimmyTBS. And yeah, if you’re under 18 then your mother needs to get you a lawyer. And then she ought to ground you from driving ever again
Do not answer any questions above. Stop posting about this. Stop talking about it. Get a lawyer, and tell him everything and follow his advice. Do not make any admissions to anyone else, here or elsewhere.
With the very limited amount of information provided here, I’d have to say it sounds mighty likely that you are in fact getting a DUI. If there is a record of your blood alcohol at the time of the accident and your license is listed as “surrendered”, I’d say action is in the process of being taken against you.
Bricker is a lawyer who is behaving ethically and has your best interests in mind.
I am not a lawyer and I do not have your best interests in mind, so I encourage you to continue posting more information because I think your story is amusing.
Do prosecutors usually make a habit of searching the entire internet for any discussion about misdemeanor crimes and then trace a user name back to its source for statements to be used at trial? Especially ones like DUI when any discussion could apply to any number of scenarios?
I’m not saying that they don’t, but it seems to me that this advice that crops up in every criminal thread is paranoia of the highest order. Please feel free to prove me wrong.
Get a lawyer, Jimmy. Like, now. Or have your mother get you one. Assuming you didn’t injury anyone, DUI defense is surprisingly cheap, and at least around here it’s usually on a flat fee basis.
I think Bricker is more concerned about the possibility of a future civil trial, since the OP said he had an accident.
Either way, it would work the other way around: the prosecutor would ask the OP whether he discussed his legal situation with anyone other than his attorney, and he would be obliged to mention that he had done so here. I suspect the fact that the OP was too drunk to remember being breathalyzed would be fairly damning.
Even if they wanted to, prosecutors don’t have the resources to go through the whole internets looking for essentially anonymous posts.
A civil attorney representing a plaintiff suing for damages as the result of the accident, with a deep-pocket insurance company providing a judgement? Sure they could. And discovery for the civil trial can require him to answer questions that a criminal trial couldn’t.
