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The costs of a DUI can be staggering. thousands of dollars
out-of-pocket, legal fees driver's license suspension, maybe the loss of
your job, maybe even your house. Brian Mullahy's been talking to a man- well aware of DUI consequences.
Who is he Brian?
He is a young attorney, named Branson West, who has- over the last several years, he says defended hundreds
if not a thousand people accused of driving under the influence. He says
penalties for DUI can be worst than possession of a pound of ***.
You'r probably lose your job you're probably going to lose your house you will lose
you're wife family over it.
uh... it's extremely common, I see it all the time. Sobering words
from a non-drinking attorney who defends drivers accused of DUI. It's brutal.
Branson West says, charged with a DUI for the first time you could
pay fifteen hundred dollars in fines. Fifteen hundred to seven thousand
dollars for a lawyer. Three hundred fifty to a thousand dollars for
an evaluation or anti-drug driving course or treatment. You're car would be impounded, and
impound and towing fees could hit six hundred dollars. But you wouldn't be able
to drive. You'd lose your license for four months. After that you'd have to pay
for your own ignition interlock device with fees, maybe six hundred bucks for a
year. So I'll tell you most of my clients tell me that they pay on a first offense
as much as ten thousand dollars
out-of-pocket. Most of his clients, he says are arrested with blood alcohol
levels not much above Utah's point .08 limit.
The UT highway patrol citing highway safety stats. Says to get to .08 highway safety stand
a one hundred sixy-pound man would
have to drink four-and-a-half (3.2 beers)
It would be four beers for a woman with the same weight.
I personally don't drink, but if it were me and I had a drink, I wouldn't drive.
So you heard him say...
don't drive, even if you've had a drop. But having said that, if you do get
pulled over
Branson West says DO NOT take a field sobriety test. He gave one to me today
and said I failed at least a portion of it. He gave a field sobriety test to a
couple of counselors in his LDS ward...
says they failed. West says just about everybody fails those test. Now refusing
to take one, could get you were arrested, however.
Blood alcohol tests, he says, are more accurate as our breathalizer tests,
as long as it is the big machine known as the intoxilyzer 8000.
In fact,
if you refuse the blood or breath test you could loose your license for 18 months.
I learned a lot by talking to this attorney today, Mark. Wow, it's almost sounds like there is a
science to it as well. There is as a lot more than you think.
We run these stories and we show people getting pulled over...that is just
the beginning this goes on he says
for three years even longer. Well a timely story to be running tonight. Thank you Brian.
Thank you very much.