I know you guys are sooo helpful, so I thought that I might reach out to my old TDCAA friends. Tomorrow, since I was the arresting officer, I am set to testify in my first DWI trial, and I am not too sure on what to expect.

Quick facts:
The guy was stopped for speeding 80 / 65 on IH-10 at approx. 2:55 a.m. on a Saturday night; He said that his eyes were red b/c he had been crying; strong smell of an alcohol beverage on his breath; slurred speech but not too heavily; had HGN on all three eye test; did not perform well on walk and turn or one leg stand; did blow on PBT .184; refused to blow on intoxilyzer; no alcohol found in the vehicle. Subject was very compliant. He said that he was speeding (on his way to see her)and crying b/c his mother was in the hospital dying.

I am sure that to most of you guys this is a basic case, but this defendant is bringing in someone out of Houston and I don't know what sort of tricks to expect. I wish I had more time, but I am sure you guys know the feeling. Can any of you tell me what I should prepare for???

By the way, I the defense attorney's name (D. Brett Shine). Anyone ever heard of him?

NR

[This message was edited by Troop on 05-22-07 at .]

I'm not sure what kind of advice you're looking for exactly, but the one thing I always tell officers before coming in is to review your NHTSA manual. Defense attorneys love to pick on the most obscure and minute details, so the better prepared you are on that, the better.

Thank you for your advice. I've got some homework to do.

nr

Of course, 95% of all cases result in a guilty plea and negotiated punishment. You could always trust the odds to work in your favor.

I actually had my 1st DWI trial in 8 years about a year ago, prosecutor was spot on and we won easily. The defense attorney tried to convince the jury that the defendant was having a seizure and as such appeared intoxicated, it helped greatly that I am also a paramedic and was able to name off the 3 different types of seizures to him when asked.

I studied the NHTSA manual and the DWI investigation and prosecution book that TDCAA puts out prior to the trial and made sure I could recite the steps and clues of the FST's by memory. This was her 2nd DWI conviction and as such she ended up with 30 days jail time as a condition of probation as well as a hefty fine.

Good luck to you, don't let the defense attorney get under your skin and get you to doubt your observations.

Thanks for all the input. I read through my NHTSA manual and sure enough the defense tried to hammer me on my SFST's but I was well prepared. It seemed as though everytime I made a good point, i.e. 4 clues on HGN equaled 77% probability of .10 BAC, he would object. He was trying really hard to make me stick to the "loss of normal use" argument since his client didn't blow. And, he would not let me say a word about .08 being the legal limit or even using the word intoxication. Objection after objection after objection. He tried over and over again to get the judge to declare a miss trial.

Anyhow, they ended up taking a plea on a deadly conduct. Again, thanks for all the help.

nr