DUI Trial
During the academy we spent a some time learning about DUIs (DWI, or the new lingo: OUI). I've heard in some states they are a quick arrests and there isn't much paperwork. In Alaska it is a long process. While on FTO going from initiating the traffic stop to getting your handcuffs back at the jail can take four hours and that is if everything goes well and that is without writing the report. Lately, if it all goes well, I can go from initiating the stop to getting handcuffs back at the jail in about two hours then I have to write the report (about another hour because of all the details). It has become such a cumbersome process that I'm sure some Officers 'miss' DUIs just so they don't have to deal with them.
During the Academy we practice the whole thing and then write a report on it. Then one of the reports is selected to go to trial. Unfortunately for me my report was selected - I had the displeasure of getting up on the stand and testifying. A prosecutor volunteered to come in and work the case and we even had a ruthless defense attorney volunteer to come in. Just about everyone in this town that works any kind of law related job or even reads the newspaper has heard this defense attorney's name before. So with minimal training and no experience I'm on the stand getting the hands on training. Needless to say I was destroyed. I have never been so tense before. For the next several days my back and neck hurt because I was so tense on the stand. Because of that whole experience I had been nervous about DUIs and during FTO I know I was slow to make arrests on DUI because of that experience on the stand. As the FTO process is suppose to do I became more comfortable with it as I gained more experience.
Today I like catching DUI because I know they are a meaningful arrest. I hope that once the offender is caught they use it as a learning experience and don't repeat their error. With a little luck the defendants friends and family also see the error and learn from it too.
One of the last DUI arrests I made on FTO finally went to trial last week. All other DUIs I've arrested have settled out of court or they settle in court at the last minute so this was my first trial. Needless to say I was nervous. I kept having flashbacks to our mock trial in the academy. So Last Wednesday I was on the stand and the Prosecutor was going over the events of that night.
I was suppose to return to the stand the next morning for the cross examine but some stuff happened and it was delayed until Monday. I was able to stress about the case for a few more days while I envisioned being grilled on the stand by the prosecutor. The more times I listened to my audio recording the more errors I realized I made and I was trying to figure out which ones the defense was going to harp upon. Make no mistake though, it was a good arrest and all mistakes aside he was DUI that night and needed to go to jail; the mistakes were in little details, where the devil lays.
Monday morning rolled around too soon with only about four to five hours of sleep because of work the night before. I report to court on time and I march up to the witness stand... Oh, did I mention the case Officer is the FTO I had that everyone dreads? This guy has driven more recruits to tears than any other and I had him for four weeks (I didn't cry).
So the questioning begins. It starts off easy and I'm waiting for him to throw out a few curve balls. We are talking about the processing in general and I used a general term to describe the arrestee 'Defendant'. The attorney said in this case the 'Defendant' has a name. So I start calling him by his name. I forget what the question was and how I phrased the answer but I knew right away the defense regretted my calling him out by name because I drilled home the fact he was very intoxicated that night. A little later the defense is harping on a burp during the observation period... nothing can be in their mouth for fifteen minutes prior to providing a breath sample since mouth alcohol will mess up the reading. If they belch (i.e. something comes up) then we have to restart the observation period. The defendant burped. So I had to articulate to the court what I consider the difference between a belch and a burp. A belch indicated that some fluid comes up in the mouth. I burp is only air. So I'm having to go into unpleasant details about what I saw during that observation period. I summed it up but saying that the defendant made a "polite burp, it was just air and it was quiet. It was not a belch like that from Homer Simpson that one could hear throughout the whole room." Using Homer Simpson as an example got several people to laugh in the court room including the Prosecutor, a few jurors and I think even the Judge. The defense didn't laugh.
I finished my testimony and left. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. While I did get frustrated with some of the questions the defense asked I wasn't attacked like I thought it might be. I went home wondering what the outcome would be as the other witnesses took the stand.
Later that night I got the message that the jury was out for fifty minutes before returning a guilty verdict! I was stoked! How often do Officers use Homer Simpson as an example in court?! And I came out of it with with a guilty verdict on the defendant!
Telebush @ 11:05 PM
5 Bitches, Moans, Gripes, Complaints...
