Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Does a Massachusetts State Trooper have to give Field Sobriety Tests when making an OUI Arrest?

August 2, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

Many arrested for OUI assume that a police officer must give field sobriety tests prior to an arrest. Under Massachusetts OUI Law, there is no requirement as to which field sobriety tests and officer must give or whether an officer give any tests at all. Most police officers will give the standard field sobriety tests, which consist of the HGN test, one leg stand and walk and turn. Other common tests include an alphabet test, number counting backwards and nose touching test called the finger to nose test.

In this Blog, I would like to discuss the common practice of a few State Troopers in the area of Wareham, Falmouth and New Bedford who commonly omit field tests or only give one admissible field sobriety test. In Massachusetts, the HGN tests is generally inadmissible as evidence in Massachusetts Courts under the Sands case. Every police officer is trained to administer field sobriety tests according to the methods of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Accordingly, in a stop for a routine traffic violation, an officer should at least give two field sobriety tests prior to forming an opinion to be fair to the motorist. However, I have increasingly seen officers administer the HGN test, a one leg stand and quickly request the motorist submit to the portable breath test and make an arrest.

Texas State Appeal Court Judge Arrested for DUI

July 24, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

In McAllen, Texas, a state appeals court judge has been arrested for drunken driving following a traffic stop this weekend. After failing field sobriety tests and admitting to drinking five beers beforehand, the judge was charged with a DUI was subsequently released from police custody on a $2,000 bail posting based on her personal recognizance.

Judge Nora Longoria was originally pulled over for speeding, after a police officer caught her doing 69mph in a 55mph zone. According to Texas Lawyer, the police officer Longoria stated that she was driving home from having “dinner with friends” and proceeded to tell the officer that she was a judge, but the officers asked her to exit the vehicle due to the smell of alcohol on her breath, had bloodshot, glossy eyes and slurred speech during the conversation. After exiting the vehicle, Longoria failed the field sobriety tests as she had trouble with her balance and continuously had to use her arms for balance throughout the walk-and-turn and one-leg-stand tests.

The officer advised Longoria that she was being arrested for driving while intoxicated, which is when Longoria became emotional and refused to be handcuffed. Longoria stated the officer was “ruining her life” and that she had “worked hard for 25 years to be where I am today”. The officer told Longoria she would be charged with resisting arrest if she did not comply with the officer’s requests but Longoria was further uncooperative and asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor allowed the judge to be handcuffed with her hands in front of her to put her at ease and she was eventually taken back to the station, where she admitted to drinking 5 beers that night and refused additional procedures, including an interview and the breathalyzer test. Longoria was later released from jail after posting a $2,000 personal recognizance bond.

Defending Drug Offenses in Plymouth County in light of recent SJC ruling limiting police searches in drug cases

July 18, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently published an important decision on Commonwealth v. William White, Jr. vacating a trial judge’s conviction and ruling that a police officer acted unlawfully when he searched the defendant and opened medical vials found in the defendant’s pockets and vehicle. This decision limits the scope of police authority to search an individual and his vehicle for drugs upon an arrest – even where the individual is arrested on a warrant issued for a prior drug crime.

The defendant in this case was pulled over by two Cambridge police officers when the officers ran his vehicle registration and discovered two outstanding arrest warrants issued against the defendant. The first warrant was for a violation of a protective order, and the second was for a drug offense. After confirming that the driver of the vehicle was the owner who had the warrants issued against him, the cops ordered him to exit the vehicle and arrested him with handcuffs.

One of the officers then pat frisked the defendant, and felt a small prescription pill container in a pant pocket. The defendant told the officer that it was a vial of blood pressure medication, but the officer still removed it from the defendant’s pocket for a closer look. The container was labeled with the defendant’s name on it, and had one pill inside. The officer then discovered another small vial which he officer knew normally would contain the thin strips used with a blood sugar testing kit. But after shaking the container and hearing a sound of pills rather than testing strips, the officer opened that container and saw a different type of pills inside. The officer seized this container for further testing. The officer then entered the defendant’s vehicle to lock he vehicle and remove the keys at the defendant’s request, and while doing so found another prescription pill container, unlabeled, on the front passenger seat, with pills identical to the unknown pills discovered in the defendant’s pocket. This container was also seized for further investigation.

Warrantless Search of Cell phones declared Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

June 28, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

The Supreme Court has just issued a landmark ruling banning law enforcement officers from searching an arrestee’s cell phone or mobile device without a warrant. According to all nine justices of the Supreme Court, a warrantless search of a mobile device, even a search incident to an arrest, is unconstitutional as a direct infringement on an arrestee’s sacred Fourth Amendment protections.

The Cases on Appeal

The ruling arrived as a decision on two companion cases: Riley v. CA and U.S. v. Wurie. In the matter of U.S. v. Wurie, which was litigated here in the U.S. District Court in Boston, police officers arrested the defendant after observing him sell two bags of crack cocaine out of a car. After the arrest, the officers performed a routine warrantless search of the defendant’s person (known as a “search incident to arrest”) and seized more than $1000 cash, keys, and two cell phones. One of the cell phones – a flip phone – was repeatedly receiving calls from a number labeled “my house;” the officers recorded the calling number and entered it into an online telephone directory. Their investigation led to a residence alleged to belong to the defendant, where they discovered more crack cocaine, marijuana, cash, a firearm, and ammo. Defendant was charged with three federal offenses.

Lawyers for Aaron Hernandez argue that the prosecution taint the Grand Jury proceeding in motion to dismiss

June 20, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

Defense attorneys for Aaron Hernandez appeared before the Fall River superior court on Monday to ask the court to dismiss the murder indictment against Hernandez. The defense attorneys premised their motion to dismiss on the argument that the prosecutors injected unfair prejudice into the grand jury proceeding to bias the grand jury against Hernandez without meeting their burden of proof to establish probable cause. From the perspective of a Massachusetts criminal defense attorney, this is a common motion filed by defense lawyers.

According to one of the defense attorneys, the prosecutors presented highly harmful and irrelevant evidence before the grand jury in 2013 to portray Hernandez as a violent individual who does not abide by the law. In doing so, argued the defense attorney, the prosecutors predisposed the grand jury against Hernandez without truly establishing probable cause to charge Hernandez with the murder of Odin Lloyd. The underlying premise is that in predisposing the grand jury against a defendant, the defendant is deprived of his constitutional right to due process of law. My Fox Boston reported on the motion to dismiss and had video footage of the argument.

Hernandez’s defense attorneys have a very heavy burden to meet in order to succeed on this motion. Courts will not generally look into the validity or quality of the evidence presented to a grand jury. A court will only review a grand jury indictment if there is insufficient evidence to support a finding by the grand jury that the defendant likely committed the alleged offense, or if the defendant argues that the prosecutor has impaired the integrity of the grand jury proceeding. See Commonwealth v. Freeman, 407 Mass. 279 (1990), This second claim is the one raised by the prosecutors in the Hernandez matter, and it essentially alleges that there was prosecutorial misconduct at the time of the grand jury proceeding.

OUI Defense to breath test evidence: Time of Driving vs. Time of Breath test

June 16, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

In a recent blog, I discussed a problematic decision by the Massachusetts Appeals Court in Com. v. Dacosta upholding a defendant’s conviction on the charge of unlawful operation with a BAC of .08 or greater, when the defendant’s BAC level was tested approximately an hour after the traffic stop. In so ruling, the Appeals Court denied the defendant the right to present “retrograde extrapolation” evidence, which may have relieved the defendant of criminal culpability in this case.

The defendant in Dacosta asked the trial judge to require the Commonwealth to present retrograde extrapolation evidence confirming that the defendant’s BAC level did not rise between the time of the stop and the time the breath test was taken. Without such evidence, argued the defendant, no reasonable jury could infer the BAC level at the time the defendant was actually operating the vehicle. And since the jury convicted on a per se charge only, the conviction must be vacated since the Commonwealth failed to establish the defendant’s precise BAC level at the time of operation. You can read the DaCosta decision by following this link.

The doctrine of retrograde extrapolation essentially stands for the scientific phenomenon whereby an individual’s BAC level in the past can be determined from a later measurement by factoring the amount of alcohol consumed, the timing of the consumption, the individual’s weight, and any food he may have eaten while or after he consumed the alcohol. In some instances where the doctrine is applied, the individual’s BAC level at a point in time soon after consumption may be lower than the BAC level later in time. That is because BAC is a measure of the amount of alcohol that is absorbed in the blood at the time it is measured; as time passes, the body (liver) metabolizes and eliminates alcohol absorbed in the blood at a consistent rate, while the rate at which the alcohol is absorbed in the blood may vary depending on the amount of food consumed and the weight of the individual. Therefore, as in the Dacosta matter, the defendant’s BAC may have actually been below the statutory limit at the time of operation an hour earlier than when he was tested, depending on his meal earlier that evening.

When Can Police order Field Sobriety Tests in a Massachusetts OUI Arrest?

June 15, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

You were stopped for speeding after having consumed alcohol? Can a police officer order you to take field sobriety tests in Massachusetts. This Blog will explain under what circumstances field sobriety tests can be ordered and the type of legal motion a DUI Defense Lawyer can make to challenge the officer’s conduct.

Can Police Officer Request Field Tests Merely Because I consumed Alcohol?

Police officers have the authority to conduct field sobriety tests if they reasonably suspect that the driver was operating his or her vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. This standard, known as the “reasonable suspicion” standard, is the lowest criminal standard used by courts, and its application to roadside sobriety tests makes drivers much more vulnerable to arrest.

Motion to Suppress Next Step in Aaron Hernandez Fall River Superior Court Murder Charge

June 13, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

This past Thursday there was another important development in the prosecution of Aaron Hernandez. The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office filed a response to Hernandez’s earlier motion asking the court to prevent evidence discovered at Hernandez’s home from coming into trial. According to a recent article, the Fall River Superior Court will hear arguments on the motion and the prosecutor’s response this coming Monday, June 16.

Filing a Motion to Suppress

The prosecutor’s submission Thursday was in opposition to what is referred to as a “Motion in Limine” or a “Motion to Suppress,” filed by Hernandez’s attorneys. In short, both motions are mechanisms by which a party asks the court to preclude certain evidence or statements/testimony from being presented at trial because the evidence was not obtained lawfully or the statements were coerced and/or are unreliable.

Colorado State drug lab denounces lab test results used in prosecution of DUI cases

June 12, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

A state forensic lab has just announced that it will no longer endorse several of its test results used in the prosecution of DUI cases. The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment’s Chief Medical Officer stated last Thursday that the State’s blood test lab will not stand by 33 of the 12000 test results reviewed during the investigation. Experienced defense attorneys may soon take advantage of this breaking news to possibility vacate their client’s OUI convictions or dismiss the charges all together if the prosecution has relied on lab reports released from the state’s lab.

The Department’s Chief Medical Officer sent a letter to a local police chief stating that an internal investigation led to the discovery of an incorrect procedure followed by one of the lab’s employees over the span of 7 months in 2013-2014. According to the letter, this was strictly an isolated incident of human error, and does not effect the results of any other test conducted by the lab.

This news comes less than a year after the criminal sentencing of Annie Dookhan who pleaded guilty to more than two dozen counts of filing false reports, tampering with evidence, and misleading police officers.

Breath Test Manual Appeal Heard by Massachusetts Appeals Court

June 7, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

A panel of Justices of the Massachusetts Appeals Court heard oral arguments this Thursday, June 5th, on the admissibility of breathalyzer test results where Commonwealth failed to comply with defense counsel’s discovery request for the operator’s manual to the breathalyzer device used. The arguments were raised in the matter of Com. v. Kristopher Cormier (2013-P-1923. This issue is of critical importance for Massachusetts OUI Lawyers as a result for the defendant in this case could result in the suppression of breath test results.

The issue is whether the Commonwealth should be allowed to rely on breathalyzer test results during trial where the test results were offered through a testifying police officer who administered the test, and without allowing defense counsel an opportunity to review the manual in preparing his case for trial.

This case was brought to the Appeals Court on an interlocutory appeal filed by the defendant after a trial judge of the Fitchburg District Court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the breathalyzer test results.