Case number: 5976XEP
Location: Hillsborough County
Charge: DUI
Result: Reduced to Reckless Driving
The defendant was stopped by the Tampa Police Department while traveling southbound on Bruce B. Downs. He was stopped because he failed to maintain single lane and he was crossing over the lane markers and hitting them with his tires on multiple occasions.
The driving pattern was captured on video. Once he was stopped, the officers observed indicators of impairment including some odor of alcohol, slurred speech, glassy eyes. He was asked to perform the field sobriety exercises, but on video did poorly. Officers ultimately arrested him, and once he was taken to jail, he refused to provide a breath sample.
Shortly after being arrested for drunk driving the defendant retained the services of Finebloom, Haenel & Higgins and through the work of Stephen Higgins over the course of several months in negotiations with the State Attorneys office, the charge was amended to a reckless driving, so the defendant was not convicted of a DUI.
The primary reason that this charge was amended, was during the course of negotiations and argument with the State Attorney, Mr. Higgins argued that the stop of defendants vehicle was tenuous at best and that the indicators of impairment were not as strong on video as the officers had thought during their subjective analysis on the night of the arrest.
Great result for the defendant given the fact that he was a young driver with a perfect driving record, and the DUI won’t show up on his driving record.
