Texas v. S.J.

.180 BREATH TEST. Client was leaving his apartment when a young man made a u-turn in front of him. Client tried to swerve and miss the other car but barely collided with him. The young man said he was going to get snack on a Friday night at 10pm, that he didn’t want my client to call the police, and before the police came he needed to change his shirt. I was able to show that the reason for the shirt change: allegedly because it was cold, was absolutely untrue. In my opinion and the juries opinion, he was having a little smoke and going out for some snacks. But it doesn’t matter, accidents happen every time. A new HPD officer took the stand and was actually written up after this trial. She did not know any of the SFST manual or the clues and had been making arrests for the past 4 years. The jury actually said the client should never have been arrested by this officer. But client tried to do the tests as best he could and even went down and submitted to a breath sample. The sample came back at a .16. The client had terrible dental problems, but it was when the State’s expert testified that they never make mistakes and they always testify the machine is accurate and reliable that the jury basically just tuned them out. The jury was very smart with a lot of technical knowledge, they realized no machine is flawless. Especially machines from the 80s, that are out of warranty, and they fix themselves: the Intoxilyzer 5000. Thank you to the jury for their just verdict. The client fought for over a year to get his Captain’s license back and now has his career back. I have since talked to him and he is still so thankful for this nightmare being over.