| Jul 14, 2021 | Case: 20-CT-504148 | Judge George |
| Facts: | The defendant was the at fault driver when she hit a bus from behind. Officers observed slow/sluggish speech, her movements were slow, and she had watery eyes. The defendant admitted to having taken her prescription medicines. Believing she was impaired by a chemical and/or controlled substance, she was asked to perform field sobriety tests. She was then arrested for DUI. At the station, another officer who is a DRE (drug recognition expert) was called in to perform a DRE exam on her to determine what class of drugs was allegedly impairing her. She also provided a urine sample which later came back from FLDE positive for amphetamines. | |
| Defense: | The observations both the arresting officer and the DRE officer made were inconsistent with someone being impaired by amphetamines. In fact, the DRE officer concluded that she was impaired by a CNS Depressant which was not only wrong, but on the opposite spectrum of amphetamines. Someone who is impaired by amphetamines will appear euphoric and excited and not slow and sluggish. In addition, someone who is impaired by amphetamines will not exhibit HGN (the eyes test), nor have equal pupil size, like the defendant did. In addition, when the officer administered the roadside tests, he covered his body worn camera with his forearm and clip board so one could not even see the defendant's performance. | |
| Result: | The State Dismissed the DUI a week prior to the trial date. | |