Wilmington, NC DWI Lawyer Thomas Kerner

Holden Beach Officer Arrested in Shallotte for DWI in Patrol Car

A Holden Beach police officer was arrested and charged with DWI in Shallotte this week for -- while driving his patrol car.  According to the Star News, the charging officer reported that the driver was "very impaired."  It is important to note that despite this information being published, the officer should be presumed to be innocent.  That is the presumption that must be started with in each and every case, and is a deeply important Constitutional right afforded to all citizens, and one that is all too often forgotten about in this day and age. 

The officer has a hearing set for early August.

Judge Orders Drug Test *After* DWI Defendant Acquitted

A DWI defendant who had just been acquitted by a jury, is ordered by a Texas judge to submit to a drug test.  From the article:

While the jury was out, according to [defendant] Price and her attorney, Paul LaValle, the judge started talking about what the sentence would be when the jury came back with a guilty verdict.

Then the judge decided she wanted Price to immediately take a drug screen urine test and ordered the bailiff to contact the Pretrial Services facility in the courthouse to arrange it.  The judge also said if Price tested positive, the results would be given to the jury, says LaValle.

...

LaValle objected vigorously, but to no avail.  Before the drug test could be arranged, the jury returned with its verdict.

Not guilty.

Price wasn't surprised. She said she felt the video clearly demonstrated that she wasn't drunk. Still, she was relieved. She was free.  Or so she thought. But Judge Johnson had different ideas. Having ordered the drug test, she instructed the bailiff to take Price away for the drug test.

Luckily for Price, the drug test, which she had to pay for, and for which she was detained an additional two hours after her being acquitted of DWI, came back clean.  Now she is suing the county, the judge, the sheriff's department, and the district attorney.

DWI Checkpoints in North Carolina

If you are out late on a weekend, you have probably seen, or even been through, a DWI checkpoint.  While few people think much about them, their presence raises significant constitutional issues.

In former Soviet-bloc socialist and communist countries, for example, citizens are quite accustomed to being stopped and questioned by police, even while doing ordinary things.  In the United States, however, this is quite unusual, mainly due to the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

The Supreme Court has set out specific guidelines for police to follow in conducting DWI checkpoints.  In doing so, it rejected the basic idea that a checkpoint is acceptable because it will catch criminals.  In Edmonds v. City of Indianapolis, the Court stated:  "We cannot sanction stops justified only by the generalized and ever-present possibility that interrogation and inspection may reveal that any given motorist has committed some crime."   531 U.S. 32, 44 (2000). 

In North Carolina, the trial judge must make findings of fact with regard to the checkpoint.  There are two separate sets of findings that must be made: (1) whether there was a proper "primary programmatic purpose" to the checkpoint, and (2) whether the checkpoint was reasonable.  In State v. Rose, 170 N.C. App. 284 (2004) the trial court failed to make these findings, and the driver's DWI conviction was reversed on appeal.