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Good day, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Mark Rollins, I'm an attorney
here in Washington D.C. I am a partner in the law firm of Rollins and Chan.
I've been practicing in Washington D.C. for about 16 years. Today I'm going
to be presenting this brief overview of drinking and driving laws here in
Washington D.C. and I'm going to get started right away.
Okay. So in the District of Columbia when they are charged by the
prosecution entity of the Attorney General's Office there are typically
three separate offenses that they charge with, and understand that each one
of these are separate and distinct, that they do not have to just charge
one or the other they can charge all three.
The first one is the most serious and its driving while intoxicated. The
language is not actually in the statute but it's defined as "driving while
intoxicated" with at BAC over .08, that's blood alcohol concentration is
above .08. And again it's the most serious of the alcohol related offenses.
The second one is driving under the influence. What's required here is that
you can have a BAC under .08 but the government has to show that you were
appreciable impaired. You'll find that operating while impaired very
similar to driving under the influence. The only difference is that they
have to prove that you were slightly impaired. So you can see that
operating while impaired is the easiest of the three to prove as they only
have to prove that you were operating the vehicle and you were slightly
impaired. It also has the least penalty as well.
So if we go through the actual statutes, driving while intoxicated they
have to prove that you were in operation of a vehicle, they have to prove
that you had a .08 or higher BAC, .04 for commercial drivers and if you are
under the age of 21 any amount of alcohol in your system. And for driving
under the influence simply they have to prove again that you were in
operation of a vehicle, that you were impaired by alcohol or drugs. And
again appreciable impaired for DUI and slightly impaired for OWI.
Now again DUI and OWI and DWI they have to prove that you were operating
the vehicle. Meeting out that element this is typically how they do it, it
may seem interesting but physical movement is not necessary of the vehicle.
In a parked car with the motor running they can prove that you were
actually in operation of the vehicle. A case just came up that you can
actually be on a bicycle and be in operation of vehicle. You can be asleep
in a car and you can give a confession with not even being in a car, as
long as they have some cooperation, a witness or somebody that saw you
driving the car.
Now for impaired they usually make this out by saying poor driving, and the
officer or someone witnesses this, bloodshot or watery eyes, slurred or
mumbled speech, fumbling for driver's license, not responsive, using car
for support when exiting the car, swaying when out of the car and field
sobriety test. Now field sobriety test this could be a separate video all
to itself and so I just listed it as one of the ways of proving that you're
impaired. And again the road side breath test, which is admissible for
probable cause hearings. And again opinions of lay witnesses.
Now for it to prove that other element in the DWI all they would have to
prove is to show that you blew a .08 or greater. And how they do that is
basically bring in a certification that the machine was found to be
accurate within the last three month and the test was conducted according
to the manufactures specification. Now in D.C. they've had some problems
with this as you may have heard in the news in the last three years and I
think recently they have just reinstated their policy, at least breath
tests.
Now this is the big one and I know most people want to know what the
penalty is for DWI and this is the big one. Because these just recently
went up and for the first offender 180 days and/or $1,000 fine. That used
to be 90 days and they went up. You're still not entitled to a jury trial
for a first offender but if you blow a .20 it's a ten mandatory minimum
which means the court must impose that ten day mandatory minimum. .25, 15
day mandatory minimum. .30, 20 day mandatory minimum. 15 mandatory minimum
on these Schedule I drugs, phencyclidine which is ***, ***, methadone
or morphine.
For a second conviction DWI within 15 years it goes up even more. You're
facing a maximum exposure of not more than one year so you would be
entitled to a jury trial here. And then you have the fines as well,
mandatory of ten days as well. For a .20 15 day mandatory minimum. .25, 20
day mandatory minimum. .30, 25 mandatory day minimum. And there is a 20 day
mandatory minimum for a blood or urine contents of Schedule I drugs again,
phencyclidine - *** - ***, methadone or morphine.
Penalty for a DWI, three or more within 15 years. No less than $2,500 and
no more than one year so you're still facing that one year. The fines have
gone up and the mandatory time has gone up. 20 day mandatory for a .20.
.25, 25 mandatory minimum. .30, 30 day mandatory minimum. And then again 25
mandatory minimum for those - phencyclidine, ***, methadone or
morphine, if those were in your system. Now fourth time offenders get an
additional 30 day minimum for each prior offense.
The Penalty for OWI which is again the least one that they have to prove.
That still stays in that 90 day or $500 or both. But repeat offenders one
year both with a mandatory minimum of five days. Two more priors $1,000 to
$5,000, one year or both with mandatory minimum of ten days. And there is
an additional mandatory minimum of five days with a driver's licenses of a
commercial vehicle.
Then they've also bumped up the penalties for children in the car, minors
five days per child if they're in a restraint, ten days if not. And then
you have the $500 fine and up to $1,000 per minor. Then you have...I'm not
going to list that one but that's watercraft that doesn't pertain to too
many people here in D.C.
But this is the biggest part all is not lost and I don't want you to
think... I know I seem like Debbie Downer especially I don't want to end on
the penalty phase of this. What you want to do is you want to get a good
lawyers and to challenge, every one of those elements can be challenged
from the operation of vehicle to whether the person was impaired and even
the actual breath test can be challenged.
Call us today, we'll talk about it, we'll sit down, we'll have a meaningful
conversation and I'm sure we can help you. Thank you.