OWI/PAC 2nd .15 (Dane County) Evidence Suppressed, All Charges Dismissed

This case involves a client who crashed his vehicle off the interstate into the cement barriers which are sometimes located near the median areas. When the police found him he had no shoes on, was covered in mud and stated he had been drinking shots, beer and mixed drinks.

The mistake the officer made was moving the client to a different location to perform field sobriety tests. Officers are allowed to do that, except, there is a limitation on the distance they can move someone who is not under arrest. We had a motion hearing on the distance the officer moved the client and the court found that the distance was too great. The court then suppressed the test result in the case which was a .15. The state could have tried to move forward with the accident and observations of the client. Thankfully, the state moved to dismiss all the charges. Great result on a motion that isn't filed that often.

OWI 1st/PAC 1st (.156), Possession of THC - Charges Dismissed After Court Suppresses All Evidence

We have said over and over in other posts that we believe our results are out of the ordinary. This case was the second OWI charge which had all the evidence suppressed in the past two days.

This case involved the client operating his vehicle at approximately 3:00 a.m. He was stopped for having expired registration. He had refused to roll his window down more than a couple of inches and was not cooperative with the officer when trying to explain his actions that evening. Client's vehicle was seen outside a bar by the officer earlier in the evening. The officer noticed an odor of intoxicants and the client admitted to drinking. He was ultimately arrested and charged with OWI and possession of THC, his blood test was .156.

We filed motion to suppress the evidence based upon a lack of reasonable suspicion to perform field sobriety tests. The cop testified, continually adding information during his testimony to attempt to justify the request for field tests. However, at one point during the hearing, the officer acknowledged that he had "no reason to suspect impairment prior to having the client step from the vehicle." The judge suppressed all the evidence obtained as a result of the unlawful detention. The field tests, blood test and drugs were all suppressed. Case dismissed. That is how we do it.

15 Pounds of Marijuana - All Evidence Suppressed (Grant County)

Interesting case, fantastic results. Client was pulled over for having the wrong license plates on his vehicle. Once he was pulled over, the officer determined the title of the vehicle was also incorrect. So he suspected something more was going on. So, he called for a drug dog.

We reviewed the video of the interaction and determined that the officer intentionally delayed filling out the paperwork to allow the dog to show up. Once the dog appeared, it “hit” on the vehicle and police discovered 15 pounds of marijuana in the back seat.

We had a motion hearing with briefing on the issue and after all was said and done, the court agreed that the police unlawfully extended the detention and suppressed all the evidence.