How to Create Cross Examination Topics in a DUI Case for the Arresting Officer
When I sit down to prepare a cross examination on a DUI case I always break up the case in 8 different areas.
Obviously these will not be the same for every DUI case, since every case has different facts, different witnesses, etc.
But its a good place to begin with when initially thinking of how best to attack the arresting officer and what areas to exploit.
In my opinion the typical DUI case has 8 critical stages during the DUI arrest: the Driving, the Initial contact, Statements by the defendant, Exiting the vehicle, HGN test, Walk/Turn test, One Leg Stand test, Breath/Blood test or Refusal of test.
For the purpose of this article I'm not going to discuss how to cross examine the arresting officer on the field sobriety tests since that is an entire article in and of itself.
So lets discuss the other areas, what to look for in the police report, and how to write the questions.
In most DUI cases the arresting officer will note one or two observations in each stage.
For example the officer may say the defendant drove with their headlights off and that's why they were pulled over.
Whats important with the statement is whats not included.
The driver was not speeding.
The driver was not weaving within their lane.
The driver was not swerving or cross any of the lanes.
There was nothing erratic about the driving.
The driver lawfully pulled over.
The idea is to use what the Officer described against them, and create questions around it.
Another example would be with the initial contact.
Typically the officer will say there was an odor of alcohol, the eyes were bloodshot watery, and there was slurred speech.
But whats not included is whether there were any coordination issues with the ignition or with the rolling down of the window.
Whether there was any difficulty producing the license.
Whether the driver could keep their head up.
Whether the driver asked intelligible and coherent questions.
Things like that.
The idea is to take little things that add up and develop questions around those.
You can do this with any of the 8 critical stages, or even break up the stages into smaller stages and exaggerate the things done correctly even more.
When developing topics to question the officer about its important to use main subjects like the 8 I described and then have questions under the topic.
Obviously these will not be the same for every DUI case, since every case has different facts, different witnesses, etc.
But its a good place to begin with when initially thinking of how best to attack the arresting officer and what areas to exploit.
In my opinion the typical DUI case has 8 critical stages during the DUI arrest: the Driving, the Initial contact, Statements by the defendant, Exiting the vehicle, HGN test, Walk/Turn test, One Leg Stand test, Breath/Blood test or Refusal of test.
For the purpose of this article I'm not going to discuss how to cross examine the arresting officer on the field sobriety tests since that is an entire article in and of itself.
So lets discuss the other areas, what to look for in the police report, and how to write the questions.
In most DUI cases the arresting officer will note one or two observations in each stage.
For example the officer may say the defendant drove with their headlights off and that's why they were pulled over.
Whats important with the statement is whats not included.
The driver was not speeding.
The driver was not weaving within their lane.
The driver was not swerving or cross any of the lanes.
There was nothing erratic about the driving.
The driver lawfully pulled over.
The idea is to use what the Officer described against them, and create questions around it.
Another example would be with the initial contact.
Typically the officer will say there was an odor of alcohol, the eyes were bloodshot watery, and there was slurred speech.
But whats not included is whether there were any coordination issues with the ignition or with the rolling down of the window.
Whether there was any difficulty producing the license.
Whether the driver could keep their head up.
Whether the driver asked intelligible and coherent questions.
Things like that.
The idea is to take little things that add up and develop questions around those.
You can do this with any of the 8 critical stages, or even break up the stages into smaller stages and exaggerate the things done correctly even more.
When developing topics to question the officer about its important to use main subjects like the 8 I described and then have questions under the topic.
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