Posted on January 01, 2020 in Uncategorized

In the early morning hours of New Years' Day 2020, a Bryan, Texas woman was placed under arrest for driving while intoxicated. The arrest occurred after her vehicle was discovered to have crashed through the side of a house. When the police arrived on the scene, the woman was still behind the wheel.

According to media reports, 61-year-old Deborah Lockledge was both the owner of the vehicle and behind the wheel at the time of the crash. She was alone in the car when the police arrived.

The police report states Lockledge claimed to have fallen ill while driving. She attempted to pull over to the side of the road but lost control of the vehicle, slamming into the side of a home on Carter Creek Parkway in Bryan. The car smashed through the wall and into the home, but no one inside suffered injuries.

Suspicion of DWI

According to the police report, law enforcement suspected intoxication immediately. Ms. Lockledge admitted to having a glass of wine shortly before midnight before heading home. The responding officers reported she seemed disoriented, could not remember what happened, and struggled to provide identification. (But remember, after a crash like this, you are bound to be disoriented and confused.)

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 01, 2020 in Uncategorized

Drivers accused of a DWI in Houston typically learn two important things during their initial consultation with a DWI defense attorney. The first is that a DWI charge carries steep maximum penalties. The second is that in many cases, it is possible to avoid serving anything close to the maximum penalties if convicted. A Brazos County man recently learned that leniency is never guaranteed.

On January 8, 2020, the Brazos County District Attorney's Office announced a guilty plea for DWI was entered by 58-year-old Charles Dutcher. Under the terms of the plea bargain, the court sentenced Dutcher to 25 years in state prison. This DWI conviction marks Dutcher's 6^th DWI arrest over the course of his life. His arrests stretch back to 1995, with his most recent DWI conviction coming in 2011.

The arrest that led to this guilty plea stemmed from a brief police chase in April 2017. According to the police report, Brazos County sheriff's deputies noticed Dutcher driving with a defective tail light. The report reflects that Dutcher fled after the deputies attempted to pull him over. Dutcher reportedly accelerated to more than 100 miles per hour, even driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid capture. Dutcher ran several stop signs before law enforcement cornered him on a dead-end road. The police report went on to say that the deputies subdued him by force after he refused to cooperate.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 01, 2020 in Uncategorized

A typical arrest for driving while intoxicated involves a law enforcement officer pulling a driver over and concluding the driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. That is not always the case, however. On the afternoon of January 21, 2020, a New York man was arrested and charged with DWI while sleeping in a parked car.

Police in Lake Luzerne, New York, responded to complaints of a reckless driver in the late afternoon hours of January 21. The callers reported a driver weaving in traffic and traveling in the opposite lane. The caller was able to describe the car and driver, which led police to track down 53-year-old John V. Mattison parked in front of a nearby private residence.

According to the police report, when officers approached the vehicle, Mattison was asleep behind the wheel. When the police roused Mattison, they immediately suspected that he was under the influence of alcohol. Ultimately, law enforcement placed Mattison under arrest for DWI and transported him to jail. In custody, a breath sample reflected that Mattison's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.22 percent. This is close to three times the legal limit in the State of New York.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 01, 2020 in Uncategorized

Most drivers are familiar with the standardized field sobriety tests. Individually, these tests include the walk-and-turn, the one-legged stand, and horizontal gaze nystagmus tests. These tests are problematic under the best circumstances even when just used to detect alcohol intoxication, but they have no scientific basis or validity for testing for drugs.

As states steadily move toward legalizing marijuana, law enforcement faces additional issues with field sobriety testing. The standardized field sobriety tests were created with alcohol in mind and are of limited use when marijuana is suspected. Another, non-standardized, field sobriety test that some law enforcement agencies are turning to with marijuana DWI cases is known as the Romberg Balance Test.

Understanding the Modified Romberg Balance Test

The first thing to note about the Romberg Balance Test is that its purpose is not to measure a person's balance. The Romberg Test requires a person suspected of DWI to:

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 01, 2020 in Uncategorized

If you have been arrested under suspicion of driving while intoxicated in Houston, you probably have plenty of concerns running through your head. How will this affect your job? Is it possible to defeat a DWI charge? Are the penalties steeper in Harris County? One question that you might struggle to find an answer for is whether possessing a handgun at the time of your arrest will impact your case.

Texas gun laws allow you to carry in a variety of ways. However, the violation of these laws could result in their own criminal charges. While it is true that having a gun in your possession at the time of your DWI arrest could have far-reaching consequences, it will not directly impact your DWI case.

It is important that you understand your rights in these situations. To ensure you are well-informed, it could benefit you to discuss your options with a skilled defense attorney. Attorney Doug Murphy has an extensive background in defending the rights of those accused of DWI. What's more, he could advise you on how a DWI case could impact your right to own guns in the future.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 01, 2020 in Uncategorized

It is no secret that the vast majority of arrests for driving while intoxicated (DWI) in Houston occur during traffic stops. Typically, police officers will pull over a suspect for some sort of moving violation or infraction. This could include anything from speeding to driving with expired tags. If the officer at the traffic stop suspects the driver is intoxicated, they normally investigate the case and make an arrest immediately.

However, a driver that makes it home after drinking and driving may not necessarily be in the clear. While rare, it is possible for the police to arrest you for DWI in Houston after the fact. This is most likely following an accident where the suspected driver left the scene.

While these charges are possible, they are difficult for the state to prove. An arrest after the fact will not have a breath, blood, or urine test to rely on. In many cases, the prosecutor could have a difficult time even proving a person was driving, let alone intoxicated while doing so. If you have been charged after the fact with DWI in Houston, let attorney Doug Murphy evaluate the strength of the charges against you.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 01, 2020 in Uncategorized

The typical Houston DWI arrest follows a similar pattern. First, you are pulled over by the police while driving down a public roadway. This can be for any moving violation or suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Next, the police investigate you. If they decide you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they will place you under arrest.

What happens if you were never driving on a public roadway in the first place? Unfortunately, in many cases, the police may still arrest you under suspicion of DWI.

DWI Standard in Texas

The charge of DWI is governed by Texas Penal Code § 49.04. According to the statute, a person commits DWI when they operate a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated.

The statute does not define what makes a public place. However, years of court decisions have helped narrow down whether or not a person is in public, or whether the general public has access. This is a sticking point for some DWI cases, so discussing it in detail with a Board Certified DWI attorney could be in your best interest.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on December 12, 2019 in Uncategorized

A 26-year-old woman and mother of two was arrested November 9, 2019, in Harris County after a car accident injured one child and claimed the life of another. Following the crash, the woman was investigated for driving while intoxicated. She now faces criminal charges related to the death.

Cristal Gonzales was charged with one count of felony murder and one count of intoxication assault after crashing her car while allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. Her three-year-old son died in the crash, while her eight-year-old son was injured. Early in the morning of Saturday, November 9^th, Gonzales struck a median while driving on Mykawa road near the Sam Houston Tollway. Both Gonzales and her older son survived, despite both suffering critical injuries.

According to law enforcement, Gonzales had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) more than three times the legal limit. Due to the death of her child, she faces felony murder charges. Prosecutors typically use this charge as opposed to intoxication manslaughter when the underlying DWI would have been a felony had there not been a fatality. In addition to the felony murder charge, Gonzales also faces intoxication assault charges related to her older son's injuries.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on December 12, 2019 in Uncategorized

For as long as driving while intoxicated has been a crime in Texas, there have been myths and misconceptions about the offense. Misconceptions about the law and false tips to beat a breathalyzer have always spread like wildfire, particularly in the age of the internet.

These myths can be problematic when taken seriously. If you are relying on bad information to prevail in a criminal trial or trick a breathalyzer, you are putting yourself at unnecessary risk. Below, we consider some of the common myths about DWI.

Myth #1: A Penny in Your Mouth will Trick a Breathalyzer

A rumor that has floated around for decades is that placing a penny in your mouth could lower the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) result on a breathalyzer test. The theory goes that the metal in the penny somehow reacts with the breathalyzer, giving off a false negative. There is no scientific evidence to suggest this is true, as there are no studies to suggest any substance can lower the BAC levels of a breathalyzer test. On the contrary, there are a variety of substances like mouthwash that might raise your BAC artificially. Residual mouth alcohol is scientifically known to falsely elevate a breath test, as does residual food or tobacco in the mouth during a breath test.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on December 12, 2019 in Uncategorized

Most of the talk about the value of a DWI defense attorney revolves around how they can help an innocent person beat a charge. There is no question that the police mistakenly arrest innocent people for DWI constantly. Some of those arrests are due to the false positives on a breath test. Others occur due to how inaccurate field sobriety tests can be. Then there are flaws and breaks in the chain of custody with blood testing that create pre-analytical errors that makes blood testing unreliable.

It goes without saying, however, that some people that face arrest for DWI are under the influence of alcohol or other substances. If that is the case for you, it might leave you wondering if hiring a defense attorney is worth it. If you believe you were intoxicated at the time of your arrest, is the cost of hiring a defense attorney worth it? Before you resign yourself to pleading guilty, there are some important factors to consider.

Continue Reading ››