Doré Law Firm

Category: DUI

  • Washington County Felony DUI Reduced to Misdemeanor

    Great result today out of Washington County, Oregon where my client’s felony DUI charge was reduced to a misdemeanor DUI.

    Felony DUI in Oregon is based on the number of prior convictions. ORS 813.011 leads to a felony DUI if you have two prior convictions in the last ten years. It carries a minimum of 90 days in jail without the possibility of work release or home confinement.

    Motion to Challenge Prior Convictions Successful

    Defendant had a prior case in California that was remarkably similar to an Oregon diversion. We made a motion to challenge defendant’s prior convictions based on whether the Oregon legislature intended a prior “conviction” to mean a guilty plea or the entry of a judgment of conviction.

    The court ruled that the State had failed to prove the California case ended in a conviction. This change the case from a felony DUI to a Misdemeanor DUI. Defendant ended the case with a sentence that was 1/3 of the DA’s final pre-trial offer, less than the mandatory minimums for a felony DUI and he’s eligible for work release and home confinement. Overall, a great result!

  • Washington DOL Hearing Victory

    I recently represented a client in a Washington DOL Hearing (Department of Licensing) regarding whether his license could be suspended for allegedly failing a breath test.

    Following a car accident, my client was contacted by police. My client admitted drinking earlier in the evening but had stopped long ago. The officer did not smell any alcohol on my client but said that his eyes were droopy, red and watery. She arrested him for DUI.

    Upon arriving at the station, the officer prepared to do a breath test: she checked his mouth for any foreign objects; she waited the 15 minute waiting period required as part of the Washington State Toxicologist breath test protocol. She had my client blow into one BAC Datamaster breath test machines. It returned an “invalid sample” error. She turned to the second machine in the room and had him blow into that one. Subsequently, she charged him with DUI and asked Washington DOL to suspend his license.

    We requested a Washington DOL Hearing to challenge the validity of the license suspension. The Washington DOL Hearing Officer threw out the suspension because the officer failed to follow the court protocol.

    WAC 448-16-040 requires:“(4) In the event that the instrument records an “invalid sample” result at any point during the subject’s test, that subject’s test should be readministered, after again determining that the subject has no foreign substance in their mouth as outlined in WAC 448-16-040(1), and repeating the fifteen minute observation period.”

    The officer didn’t re-do the mouth check and didn’t repeat the fifteen minute observation period.

    The result? Client gets to continue driving without a pretrial suspension that would have resulted if we had lost his Washington DOL Hearing. Client may also be able to use the officer’s error to suppress the breath test in the criminal case as well.

    The moral? Police reports require a careful reading to catch the small errors that an officer may make. Those errors can yield big results.

  • Vancouver DUI Reduced to Negligent Driving

    Good Result on Vancouver DUI

    My client was charged with a DUI over .15% blood alcohol content. This case looked tough from the beginning, with allegations of a high BAC, allegations of an “overwhelming” odor of alcohol and a report detailing an extremely poor job on field sobriety tests. The original offer was to plead as charged and go to jail for 2 days.

    Initially, the State only turned over a written report. However, after reviewing it, it was obvious that there was also a video recording of the stop. After forcing the state to turn over the tape I discovered that 1) the first officer on the scene never smelled the odor of alcohol from my client; 2) the officers commented that she did an “amazing job” on field sobriety tests (despite writing up report to look like a terrible job); and 3) when client said she didn’t want to do field sobriety tests, officers made a veiled threat of arrest if she didn’t do them.

    The end result was a reduction from a high blow DUI to Negligent Driving 1. That means 3 years less probation, no further license suspension and avoiding a year of ignition interlock. That’s a great result for almost any Vancouver DUI!