DUI and Driving Offenses

Last spring, after it was revealed that two years’ worth of breath test results in D.C. were suspect, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) sent out a letter to defense counsel assuring them that the calibration problems had been resolved.  What the OAG’s office did not say was that, although the calibration problems may have [...]

D.C. has a “direct breath alcohol” DWI statute.  That is, unlike Virginia and other jurisdictions in which the measurement of alcohol on a suspect’s breath is used as a surrogate measure for the true evil targeted by drinking-and-driving laws  (that is, blood alcohol), D.C.’s statute makes it a crime to have alcohol on your breath [...]

Of the many physical conditions that can cause an elevated breath test reading in a DWI case, diabetes is one of the most common. There are at least three ways in which a person suffering from diabetes can give the misimpression that he is driving while intoxicated. First, as Taylor/Oberman explain it, when the diabetic’s [...]

“Swaying while balancing” is one of four “clues” used by a police officer to detect intoxication during the One-Leg-Stand component of the Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST).  The police officer would require only one other clue to mark the suspect down as having failed this component and arrive at the conclusion that there is a [...]