No Probable Cause for the Traffic Stop

Nevada police cannot lawfully stop a driver arbitrarily merely to check for drunk driving. The officer must first witness a traffic violation or incompetent/impaired driving to have a lawful stop. An unlawful stop can be attacked through a Motion to Suppress the evidence. The suppression hearing is heard by the judge, and if the judge agrees that the stop was unlawful, the evidence obtained as a result of the stop will be excluded from trial. Usually, this results in the charge of DUI being dropped.

• Being nervous from intimidation by the officer or close passing traffic;
• Bad, cold or windy weather;
• An uneven surface with poor footwear;
• Being overweight, elderly, very tired or having an injury can all cause balance problems and a perception of impairment;
• Having elevated, uncontrolled blood sugar levels will cause perceived impairment;
• An adverse reaction to some over-the-counter medications will cause a perception of impairment.

More than One Officer is Necessary at Trial

Sometimes an officer will do the field sobriety tests and another will arrest, or the arresting officer will not be the officer who gives the evidentiary breath test or takes possession of the blood vials. When this occurs, it may be difficult to get both officers to court for the trial and this can lead to a favorable negotiation or even dismissal of a DUI charge in Las Vegas.

You Refused to Submit to the Field Sobriety Tests

There is no reason to submit to the field sobriety tests. The purposes of the tests are to give the police an indication of how much the driver drank and to aid the officer's arrest decision. The tests are difficult for a sober person to adequately perform and are therefore often used as evidence against a driver arrested after "failing" the tests.

You refused to Submit to the Preliminary Breath Test

There is no reason to submit to the preliminary breath test if you have been drinking, especially if you have been drinking recently. These tests use fuel-cell technology and measure the change in voltage across the cell. Thus, the longer one blows, the higher the BAC reading tends to go. That is why these tests are not admissible as evidence in trial

The Field Sobriety Tests Suffer From a High False Positive Rate

The federal government says that field sobriety tests have a high error rate. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration indicates that the One-Leg Stand test has a 35 percent false-positive rate, the Walk & Turn test has a 32 percent false-positive rate and the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test has a 28 percent false-positive rate. Thus, 1 in 3 DUI suspects arrested solely on the basis of these tests would be wrongfully arrested.

An appearance of intoxication can be from non-alcohol reasons, such as high →blood sugar or over-the-counter medications

If a DUI suspect fumbles with ID, registration or insurance, or struggles to get out of the car, Las Vegas police are quick to assume that alcohol is the reason. Yet many ‘non-alcohol’ related factors can cause a driver to be perceived as impaired: A True DUI Attorney can identify the non-alcohol explanations for how you performed, and use them in your Las Vegas DUI defense.

The Officer Lacked Probable Cause to Arrest You for DUI

Las Vegas police cannot arrest you without probable cause to believe you were drunk driving. The "reasonable officer" standard is used. This is an objective standard that the officer must use to determine if the driver was driving under the influence. The problem in Las Vegas and other parts of Nevada is that no such standard has been articulated by our highest court. Lack of probable cause is a good defense if the driver has not drank to a point of impairment and then refused to submit to the sobriety tests and preliminary breath test. It is not illegal to drink and then drive in Nevada. It is illegal to drink too much and then drive. Drinking then driving becomes illegal when the driver drinks enough to become an impaired driver or when the driver's blood alcohol goes higher than 0.08 percent blood alcohol content (BAC). For the average person of approximately 145 pounds, this is about 4 drinks within 1 to 2 hours before driving.

Mouth Alcohol and Organic Contaminates in the Breath Interfere with the Breath Machine

Las Vegas and other cities in Nevada use a DUI breath-testing machine called the Intoxilyzer 5000. It is designed to directly measure alcohol in the air deep in your lungs. The machine uses infrared light to measure the alcohol particles in the breath and then mathematically extrapolates the breath alcohol into a "guesstimate" as to the actual blood alcohol level. (Note: studies have shown that rarely are breath and blood BACs the same). However, if there is alcohol in the mouth or throat, the breath machine will see it mixed in with the air from the lungs and will give a higher BAC reading than the deep lung air alone would give. Likewise, when someone who is a poorly controlled diabetic, on a very high protein diet or who works with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) breathes into the machine after having drank alcohol, the machine may not be able to differentiate between these ketones, isopropyl alcohol, VOCs and alcohol. Diabetics and people on high protein diets have a higher level of ketones and isopropyl alcohol in their blood and breath than normal, healthy people. Likewise, people who work with solvents and hair sprays often have much higher levels, too. Tests have shown that the breath machine can give BAC readings up to four times higher than the true BACs for these people.

Chronic Heartburn or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) can Skew the →Breath Machine Results

Like residual mouth alcohol, burping and gastric reflux can skew the BAC reading from a breath machine to a number higher than the true BAC. Trial results have proven that if stomach alcohol finds its way into the arrestee's breath, then the BAC results have not been proven accurate beyond a reasonable doubt.

Exploit the Margin of Error in the Blood and Breath Machine's Results

Metrology is the study of error in measurements. No matter how small, there is some error in all measurements. With each step in a process, the errors build upon each other. The "margin of cumulative error" in the blood analysis and breath machines has never been directly measured and published, but in some instances, it is certainly possible for a True DUI Attorney to show the judge that it is large enough that the accused has to be adjudicated not guilty under the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard. A True DUI Attorney has the knowledge to effectively argue that his client's BAC falls within that machine's margin of error, and as such, his client must be judged not guilty!