Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
It goes without saying that the best result when facing a criminal charge is to get out of it completely. Everyone hopes the whole thing can just go away. That can and does occur sometimes, but only when the lawyer uses an intelligent defense strategy. Before that can happen, however, the whole situation, and every piece of evidence within in, must be carefully examined. This all sounds great, but beyond that, what does it really mean? In this article, we’re going to explore that.
We live in the Information Age. Police body-cam video is in widespread use as we begin 2023, and that’s growing. Soon, it will be largely universal, and that’s good. No matter what, there are 2 sides to every story. Even a routine and polite citizen-police interaction can be perceived differently by either party. Video evidence is neutral. To be sure, video is far from perfect, but it can certainly be beneficial in a criminal case. Sometimes, that can just mean providing a person with the clarity to know that the case against him or her is solid.
That shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. It would be impossible to count the number of times my team and I have heard one thing from a client, and then seen another on the video. In DUI cases, for example, people will often say things like the officer “said I swerved.” Sometimes, people disagree, genuinely believing that their driving was fine. Later, when watching the police dash-cam video, they’ll see that their driving wasn’t fine, and at least not feel so bad about the traffic stop. Of course, that’s not as good as finding a way to beat the criminal charge, but even merely erasing doubt is a good thing.
In a Michigan license appeal case, it is, of course, the hearing officer’s understanding of sobriety that matters most. As we just noted, to win a license appeal, a person has to prove his or her sobriety. The Michigan Secretary of State hearing officer presiding over the case is the one who decides whether that’s been done satisfactorily or not. Although different people can have varied understandings of it, there are certain foundational characteristics that are always present in real sobriety. That’s what we’ll be looking at in this piece.
Specifically, this means putting the case, your worries, and all strategy concerns into your attorney’s care. This article is not going to be some thinly disguised promotional piece for our firm. Of course, we’re Michigan criminal and DUI lawyers, and in we’re in business to earn our incomes. However, what we’ll cover here applies to everyone, including people who live outside of our geographic practice area. Our criminal and DUI practice is concentrated in and limited to the Metro-Detroit area, meaning Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and the surrounding counties.
From the very beginning, every part of every driver’s license restoration appeal case we handled has been a team effort. This is not merely a division of labor among my team and I, but rather a quality control check and re-check way of doing things. To be sure, we do divide some of the tasks in such a way that someone will primarily handle one instead of another. However even then, each of us still winds up checking the other’s work. No matter how you cut it, having more sets of eyes reviewing a case is always better having than fewer.
Pretty much everything about a Michigan DUI case is complicated. That’s not meant to intimidate the reader, but rather set the foundation for our discussion. There is a lot to even the most “garden variety” DUI case. So much, in fact, that there is a whole subset of attorneys, like my team and I, that can honestly call themselves “DUI lawyers.” This goes beyond knowing the nuances of the law, and includes things like understanding how a specific strategy, including techniques like timing, can play a role in producing a more favorable outcome.
To keep things simple, we’ll refer to both offenses as “indecent exposure,” unless we need to differentiate one from the other. Our firm handles a lot of these cases. In fact, I doubt there is any firm that handles more indecent exposure charges than we do. My team and I are exceptionally good at them. I can say that without reservation that, of the hundreds and hundreds of clients we’ve represented for just indecent or aggravated indecent exposure charges, NOT ONE has ever gone to jail. We can boast a 100% success rate in that regard.
Let’s start with an important but often overlooked facet of Michigan law. Anyone arrested for (and convicted of) a 2nd offense DUI within 7 years of the date of his or her 1st DUI conviction is legally categorized as a “habitual alcohol offender.” There are several key consequences to this, 2 of which will significantly impact anyone convicted for his or her second DUI. The first is that, upon conviction for his or her 2nd offense, the person’s driver’s license will automatically be revoked.
There are 2 ways to do that: Either you go back and prove to the Judge that the violation is wrong, or, despite a screw-up on your part, you manage to get yet another break. That really sums up the whole situation. Ultimately, the alleged violation is either correct, or it’s not. Consider the most common kind of probation violation – drinking alcohol. There are times when a positive test result is wrong. That doesn’t happen often, but it does, sometimes. If the result is wrong, then that must be proven to the Judge. Merely saying so is not evidence, nor is it enough to win.
The investigative phase comprises the stop (and/or initial police contact), as well as the interactions that lead to the arrest, including the field sobriety tests. It also encompasses the arrest itself, any and all chemical test(s) that follow, the booking and, ultimately, the person’s release from jail. The court phase covers everything from a person’s first notice to appear all the way through the sentencing and probation. The “after” phase is about life after the case is over, meaning the consequence of a DUI conviction, or the relief of having avoided it altogether.
Let’s look at an obvious example. It’s contained in the all-important question, “When was the last time you consumed any alcohol?” It’s probably fair to say that most people know they’re going to be asked that question, or at least some version of it, as part of their license appeal case. Most will (correctly) assume that their answer needs to indicate that, depending on their drinking and DUI history, it’s been long enough since they last imbibed. While that’s correct, it’s only part of the story. The other part is that, as we just noted, whatever the answer, it must also be true.