Case Con­clu­sion Date: March 4, 2011

Out­come: DUI Reduced to Reck­less Driving

Court: State Court of Chatham County

Actual Judg­ment: Actual Judgment-Contractor’s DUI Reduced to Reck­less Dri­ving — Savan­nah, Geor­gia

Descrip­tion

It’s Sat­ur­day after­noon and Richard is dri­ving. He’s com­ing up to the inter­sec­tion. There is a car in front of him that stopped fast at a red light. He slammed on the brakes. He knew he couldn’t stop in time. So, he swerves to the right, strad­dles the curb and the grass and the road­way. He goes right by the dri­ver he almost hit. He loses con­trol , fish­tails, and comes slid­ing into the inter­sec­tion and stops. He dri­ves off. Across the inter­sec­tion and behind four cars is a police offi­cer. He saw every­thing. He imme­di­ately stopped and arrested Richard for Dri­ving under the influ­ence (DUI); DUI less safe; Fail­ure to main­tain lane; Bro­ken wind­shield over 3“x 3;” Unsafe tires; Aggres­sive dri­ving; Pos­ses­sion of drug related object for use; Dri­ving too fast for con­di­tions; and Open con­tainer vio­la­tion. We got ready to fight for Richard. There were Motion hear­ings, and every other hear­ing allowed except a trial. We were ready for trial. We hired a Field Sobri­ety Expert to come and tes­tify at Richard’s trial. Five days before trial, a nego­ti­ated plea was worked out. The D.A. agreed to drop the DUI charges to Reck­less dri­ving. In the end, they dis­missed Aggres­sive dri­ving, unsafe tires, and bro­ken wind­shield. They merged Dri­ving too fast for con­di­tions into the Reck­less charge. Richard was happy. His record is clean. He kept his license. He stayed out of jail.