Our client spent the day boating with his wife in Oneida County. He contacted law enforcement for assistance after their pontoon got stuck in the weeds ,and his wife decided to swim to shore. When deputies contacted him, the client admitted to consuming alcohol throughout the day. Authorities determined he was impaired and placed him under arrest for boating while impaired. He submitted to a breath test, which resulted in a reported alcohol concentration of 0.11.
On the eve of trial, our attorney was able to convince the district attorney that he had significant problems with the case. First, the boat was not in operation when authorities arrived on scene. As such, the government would have difficulty establishing if the client was impaired when the operation occurred. Second ,the government would have difficulty disproving that our client consumed alcohol after the boat became stuck in the weeds and before authorities arrived. Last, our client's situation was sympathetic inasmuch as he called law enforcement for assistance and ended up being arrested. Given the circumstances, the prosecution agreed he would have trouble at trial. He agreed to dismiss the PAC charge and amend the OWI to a non-alcohol related violation for a distress signal flag violation.