South Carolina Criminal Attorney Blog

A group of people gathered at the Justice Academy where South Carolina future police officers are trained, and drank vodka. It was all part of an exercise to help the students learng to administer field sobriety tests and figure out if someone is drunk or not.

The subjects of the drinking experiment were made up of news reporters, a law enforement officer and some of thier friends. One lady participant, who was of average size and middle aged, registered a .039 after just one vodka drink and on an empty stomach. She then registered a .053 after her second and then a .063 after her fourth.

It was explained by the instructor that eating makes a gigantic difference. They also explained a few of the common myths surrounding attempts to sober up that just don't work. For example, drinking coffee, large amounts of water and taking a cold shower, just do not work. A drunk's only friend when trying to sober up is, time. And obviously, the more you have drank, the more time you will need.

After her fourth drink, she registered a .096. Other participants had much different results. One person who weighed 217 pounds, was a mere .074 with five drinks, while another one who weighed 175 pounds reached .110 after the same amount of drinks. And yet a very small woman gave a reading of .089 after just two drinks. The point is, what people register can greatly vary from person to person.

Another thing that was explained was some DUI statistics as SC is compared with the national average. In SC, 51 percent of car accidents in our state are alcohol related, while the national average is 40 percent.
And, South Carolina ranks number two in the country with alcohol related deaths. Just as staggering was that SC had 300 people murdered last year. However, there were 900 people who lost their lives to drunk drivers.

I guess I could call it, "DUI Week on my blog." Since I seem to be devoting a lot of time this week to writing about DUI's, it seemed incomplete if I didn't do an article about another alcohol driving offense that is not quite the same as Driving Under the Influence. Here in South Carolina we have an extremely close charge called. Driving Under an Unlawful Alcohol Concentration. Its called DAC for short.

DAC has penalties very similar to that of a DUAC. Of the cases I see here in Myrtle Beach and Conway, only a small percentage of them are DUAC and the vast majority are DUOS cases.

The elements for proving a DUAC are less then that of a DUAC. Basically the prosecution has to show that the person was driving, a motor vehicle, and the they registered a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. Heavy fines, jail time, high risk insurance, and so forth are just as likely with these as with the normal DUOS.

The Code of Laws for SC states certain requirements for a conviction on DAC. First, the breath test must have been administered within two hours of the driver being arrested. There must be what is called, "articulable cause" for the police stopping the driver. That word has its own legal definition. The defendant's arrest must have been lawful. That sounds silly, but that is what it says. The written testing procedures must be provided to the defendant. He/she must consent to the breath test. That means that they cannot force a person to take the test. As said earlier the results must be 0.08 or more. The administrator of the testing has to be qualified pursuant to certain qualification requirements as set forth in the Code of Laws. The same testing procedures for the typical Driving Under the Influence charge must still be followed. And lastly, the Code states that the machine was working properly.

Quite a bit of what the code dictates for a DUAC is the same as for a DUI. And I have to admit, some of these things really do sound ridiculous to be in the law. Since the code is so specific about these requirements, they are things that the defense attorney should always consider when representing someone charged with this.

A lot of the other aspects of a DUAC and a DUI are the same. Such as the right to have a blood test taken and the obligation of the police to give some assistance in that happening. The assistance doesn't in reality amount to much more than providing transportation to the nearest medical facility. If the police to not lend the assistance as required, then that would amount to the breath test results being inadmissible at trial.

There are other aspects of a DUAC and a DUI that are the same.

Man arrest in for DUI driving a horse and buggy

This is a good example of how Driving Under the Influence arrests extend to just about anything other than a car. The DUI statute here in South Carolina, and I assume all states, makes specific reference to operating a "motor vehicle." But the courts over the years have expanded that to include just about anything that can be, "operated" and moves. In Conway, SC recently a person was arrested on a bicycle and in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a lady was arrested for operating a golf cart under the influence.

In the horse and buggy arrest, it was an Amish man that was arrested in Lancaster, PA this week. A breath test of the driver resulted in an alcohol content of .18, which is considered quite high. The Amish prefer horses and buggies as their main form of transportation and in that part of the country its not uncommon to see them on the roads.

When you stop to think of the legislative intent behind the DUI laws, that is to protect people and keep the roads safe, it only makes sense that judges have extended the "motor vehicle" requirements to include anything that travels. I recently posted an article that made reference to a man that had mounted a motor to a bar stool and was arrested on that. I suppose it would be very unlikely that such a vehicle would pose much of a danger to the public, but its certainly possible that the driver himself could be injured.

I've seen or heard of cases where Driving Under the Influence cases involved jet skis, lawn mowers and even airplanes. For the defense attorney on these type cases, their jobs are basically the same and the same types of defenses are used. And the prosecutor's job is pretty much the same as well.

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Recent DUI's in Myrtle Beach, Horry County and around the country.........even attorneys and prosecutors charged

Since DUI's are so common, especially with the holidays rapidly approaching, I thought I'd summarize some of the more noteworthy ones both locally and around the country.

In Rhode Island this past week a federal prosecutor was arrested and plead not guilty on a DUI charge. He was originally charged with a law they have in that state for refusing to take a chemical breath test and not charged with a DUI. Suspictions arose that maybe he was not originally charged because of who he was. The DUI stemmed from being pulled over on Thanksgiving for erratic driving, at which time he told police that he has too much to drink. The local police and the Departement of Justice are now investigating the incident.

In Vermont, the state auditor plead guilty on last Thursday to Drunk Driving and paid almost $900 in fines and court costs. The auditor, Tom Salmon, was in the news last year when he was deployed to Iraq while he was running for a second term in office.

In Honolulu the police have started putting DUI mug shots on their web sites. This has cause a stir with those who feel it will cut down on drunk drivers out on the road versus those who feel it may violate constututional rights of those who have not been convicted yet. In the middle are those who say that this is public information and has been put on TV and in newspaper for many, many years.

On a silly note, the motorized bar stool that a man from Ohio received a Driving Under the Influence on hit Ebay this week. The driver, Kile Wygle was arrested in March and ended up pleading guilty. Just prior to being arrested, he lost control and crashed contraption. At the time of his guilty plea, he owed approximately $37,000 in non-paid child support and the judge commented that whatever amount its sold for should go towards the grossly overdue child support. The stool was seized by the county.

Here in the Myrtle Beach area, Horry County has been no exception with officials being in the news for DUI related matters. Atlantic Beach mayor Retha Pierce was arrested a while back for Driving Under the Influence. I don't recall reading whether she has a lawyer on that. Nor do I recall if she had an attorney on her Trespassing and Disorderly Conduct charges stemming from an incident last January, which just happened to have been dismissed last month when the arresting officer didn't show for court. On her DUI charge, she apparently said that she had independent tests done that showed that there was not alcohol in her system, which is consistent with a SLED urine test that indicated the same results.

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