DWI Today

What is happening in the world of DWI today ? Pure insanity. Injustice. Here is a taste of what the inner workings of the judicial system is on DWI in just the past few weeks in Tarrant County , Texas. Fort Worth (seat of Tarrant County) is so proud of their wild west heritage that the police cars say: "Fort Worth: Where the West Began." Thankfully I do not report the same level of unfairness and injustice in Dallas County.

A couple of weeks ago I had a DWI trial where my client hired an accident investigator to explain to the jury relevant circumstances: shock, spinning across 7 lanes of traffic could be caused by the other car that hit her going too fast (and the victim dared not show up to court to testify), the effects of accidents physically and mentally on people (of course the da argued all her signs of shock were intoxication). The judge would not let him testify even though he was a retired cop, performed thousands of accident investigations and was trained by the expert that the state uses. Not only did the judge not allow him to testify but the DA personally tried to go after him for perjury saying he did not have a private investigator license which he did (the state had just not updated their website to include recently licensed people). How do I know ? Because the state's cop expert that trained him was called by the DA and told him this. Sick. He did have a private investigator license and they simply wanted to ruin him because he now testifies for the defense. Now I believe my expert witness, retired emergency medical room physician that found the FBI knocking on his door one day that eventually led to him losing his medical license. Apparently when a doctor gets grieved their process does not allow him to face his accuser. To this day he does not know who complained about his services. His wife was dying of brain cancer and he chose not to fight.

Just finished a trial yesterday where my 38 year old client refused to perform the monkey acts (nothing normal about a tight rope walk and turn and that ridiculous display of holding up your foot for 30 seconds that studies show most people can't do). I filed his medical records evidencing his persistent lower back pain and problems of 2 years which predated his DWI arrest by 6 months. Relevant why ? Because even in the cops' DWI manuals it states people with back problems are not candidates for the tests. The judge denied letting the properly filed medical records in as the DA argued they were not relevant. Jury not only convicted him, they never got to hear about his documented back problems while the judge allowed the DA to talk about the field sobriety tests that were never done against my objection.

Had a jury last year convict a guy on blood that was green from fermentation (yup, they brought the tube in green, moldy and all). Heard another one of my juries say "That is insane, clearly the blood was messed up" while that same jury convicted a superbowl NFL athlete who did not understand cops can withdraw your blood against your will. It took 5 cops torturing him (deploying the taser not once but multiple times as well as getting physical with him) to get it while he nonviolently crossed his arms in passive resistance. His circumstances met none of the mandatory blood draw facts by law: a felony, an accident where someone goes to the hospital or there is a child under 15 in the car. So why do we have a law in Texas that outlines when cops can draw blood when they do it anytime anyway ? Our own judges allow this despite the written statute.

Yesterday before trial I went to talk to a felony DA about dismissing a DWI for no probable cause. My client and her boyfriend were arguing. She left. He called the police the first time and the police rightfully determined that no crime had been committed. The second time he called, the 911 tape has the boyfriend telling the operator that she drove by and put something in his mailbox and left (no crime once again being committed). The DA tried to tell me the police can investigate anytime, anywhere for anything and even if the judge said it's not legal, she would argue "consensual encounter" (yea right, my client stopped on a street minding her own business, collecting her thoughts and the police walk up banging on her window: real consensual now isn't it ?). Our Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves.

I have determined that as soon as the letters D-W-I are entered into the equation the Tarrant County DA's office is so full of blind zeal they can't see the law. This is what happens when you let MADD throw up billboards that are not true: Drink. Drive. Go to Jail. Then you have Texas DPS throwing up the same billboards full of lies. Another lie: Over the limit, under arrest. Not true. In Tarrant County, the DA's office will still prosecute you even if your alcohol level is under .08 at the time of driving. One of my last week jury Not Guiltys was a case where my client blew a .09 an hour after the driving. The state expert honestly testified he could have been under .08 while driving. To spare the county taxpayers the expense of a trial, the DAs the embarassment of a Not Guilty and my client the torture of going through trial and risking an unjust verdict, I begged the DA supervisor to reduce the case. The response ? She wanted to proceed hedging her bets a Tarrant County jury would convict anyway. Lucky for me, she was wrong.

Everyday I fight to bring justice and fairness to the courtroom. Someday they will be teaching about this insanity in the law history books. It is no different than throwing Japanese citizens in relocation camps and confiscating their property. No due process. It is no different than when Senator McCarthy was accusing people of being Communist sympathizers on specious evidence. It is no different than when racial bigots tried to justify segregation under "separate but equal." Many juries, many judges, many prosecutors did the wrong thing deceiving themselves they were justified while doing it. History repeats itself. Blind zeal is used to scare the public. MADD is the master of scare tactics marketing. Every year approximately 1.4 million Americans get arrested for DWI in the United States compared to the 3500 actual victims of DWI (NHTSA's 14k number is not relevant as it just refers to "alcohol related." ) The truth is you have better odds of choking on a chicken bone and dying than being killed by a DWI. Politicians, judges, MADD, many jurors are getting swept up in the wide net of deception thinking they are doing the public good. In reality they are destroying the Constitution and all of our rights. Ben Franklin said "Those who are willing to give up liberty for safety deserve neither." Amen Ben.

Let's stop the insanity. Let's stop convicting people on nonscientific circus acts. Let's stop ignoring the law in order to get a conviction. Let's stop pretending that everyone should be scared to get on our highways due to the DWI threat. The threat is a magnified lie, it does not reflect the true statistical probabilities. Let's stop kowtowing to a bunch of bitter, angry women on a nondrinking moral crusade and judges and DAs that are too cowardly to enforce the law. The system only works where truth is allowed to thrive. I will always fight for truth and justice. This is why I do what I do. -Mimi Coffey, Sr.