Texas v. E.K.

0.140 BREATH TEST! Client hit something on I-10 that caused his car to stop driving. And of all people to come to the rescue was Sergeant of the DWI Task Force. Client was a third-year law student at the time of arrest and a current lawyer. He couldn’t afford to lose, so he actually hired Jed Silverman and myself. Jed picked a great jury and systematically weaved doubt throughout the arrested officer. He showed how the HGN doesn’t really mean anything and the officer compromised the validity in his administration. Client looked good on the Walk and Turn and One Leg Stand and then said his alphabet twice. Client was still arrested and submitted a breath test 45 minutes after the stop of a 0.138 and 0.140. I handled the DPS Technical Supervisor. She was young but knowledgeable. Talked about all the inherent problems with the Intoxilyzer 5000 and then got into specifics about the machine in this case. The machine was a spare they put in and once the Eprom was changed, the client went from 25% random probabilities to 62%. Something is definitely wrong with the source code. But in the end, we were able to catch the arresting officer that he didn’t properly observe the client for the required 15 minute waiting period. So the jury heard the entire breath test evidence, then decided to suppress the breath test themselves, and found him NOT GUILTY on loss of mental and physical faculties. Jed and I’s first trial together was a huge success.