DWI evidence- Fairfax DUI lawyer warns against your words to police boomeranging back to you

DWI evidence can be plentiful in some prosecutions. As a Fairfax DUI lawyer I know that you do not want your own words to police to boomerang back to whack you i the but. If you are reading this article before interacting with the police, know your Fifth Amendment Constitutional right to decline to answer police questions, Sixth Amendment Constitutional right to demand a lawyer, Fourth Amendment right to decline searches, and legal right to refuse to engage in field sobriety testing (FSTs / SFSTs) and in pre-arrest breath testing / preliminary breath testing (PBT). A good point of reference from fiction is the dinner in Phantom Tollbooth, where each attendee’s pre-dinner speech was the food and drink s/he wanted, because each person ended up eating their words. With police, any words you use with them can end up tasting worse than dog feces. Silence with police is golden. (With all that said, if you are in a collision with property damage, you still have your reporting obligations. I can only advise about that through a confidential consultation scheduled through my staff.)

How can my words to the police become DWI evidence against me?

DWI evidence from you alone can come in the form of your words to the police, your behavior in the presence of the police, your manner of moving and speaking (including any slurred speech, your manner of driving, your physical appearance, your clothing (whether kempt or not, and whether zippered or buttoned or not), any odor of alcohol on your breath (and the strength of that odor), and whether your eyes are bloodshot, watery and/or glassy (and to what extent). How do you lawfully minimize enabling the police, prosecutor, judge and jurors access to such evidence? The best way is not to drink and drive. Add to that the importance of not driving in a manner that will entice and enable police to stop your car, and not to park illegally, nor to let your car simply sit in the middle of the road when you do not have a green light (and certainly avoid sleeping in your car when it is in the drive gear). Add to that the importance of remembering your right to remain silent with the police and to refuse FSTs. Moreover, if you have been drinking beer, wine or alcohol, the more you speak, the more opportunities you provide law enforcement officers (LEO’s) to smell alcohol on you. Make sure your Fairfax DUI lawyer / Virginia DWI attorney knows the law on corroboration of any admissions to the police: The prosecutor must present “independent evidence that slightly corroborates the corpus delicti (the fact that the crime charged has been actually perpetrated)” of the crime to which the defendant admits. Allen v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 287 Va. 68, 78 (2014). 

How do my admissions to the police help put me behind the wheel and weaken arguments that I may have consumed alcohol after driving?

Two of my most important arguments as a Fairfax DUI lawyer countering DWI evidence against my client is to argue — when police have not seen my client driving or attempting to drive — the absence of any witness to my Virginia DWI defense client’s driving and the possibility that my client continued consuming alcohol after driving. When you admit to being the driver, you have become your own witness against you for helping the prosecution prove that element of the crime. When you say you have had no alcohol or that you last consumed alcohol before driving, you make it harder for your lawyer convincingly to argue that you may have or did consumed alcohol after driving and that post-driving alcohol consumption cannot be used against you in a Virginia DWI prosecution.

Should I withdraw my self-harming words to the police?

Once you have stuck yourself with the dagger of your own admissions to the police that provides them with more DWI evidence against you for prosecuting you for allegedly driving after consuming alcohol or drugs in violation of Virginia Code § 18.2-266, do not make matters worse by attempting to remove the dagger yourself rather than having a professional help you, in this instance a qualified Fairfax DUI lawyer or attorney from another county. No matter how much you have already said to the police that you should not have, the sooner you assert your right to remain silent, the sooner you can reduce the hemorrhaging caused by your not having remained silent with police in the first instance.

What can I do to blunt the damage of my words to the police?

When you answer police questions, you make them happy with DWI evidence against you. Even lying to the police can make them happy when they are able to catch you in a lie and in consciousness of guilt. Your admitting words to the police are not going to be ignored. Whether you have been arrested and criminally charged / prosecuted after speaking with the police or not, having submitted to FSTs or not, having provided a pre-arrest breath / PBT sample or not, or having submitted a post-arrest breath or blood sample or not,  it is time for you to obtain the right Virginia DWI lawyer for you. Fairfax DUI lawyer Jonathan Katz has successfully defended hundreds of people charged with Virginia DWI offenses, including often working with forensic science experts hired by the defendant. Jon is among the small percentage of Virginia DWI defenders who is a member of the National College of DUI Defense or its equivalent, and an even smaller percentage who are trained by one of the nation’s top trainers of police in conducting SFSTs on people who have recently consumed alcohol.

Start your strong defense today by scheduling your free in-person confidential consultation with Fairfax DUI lawyer Jonathan Katz about your court-pending prosecution, at 703-383-1100.