June 30, 2015
Framingham District Court
911 was called by a frantic woman around 10pm. She had witnessed what she believed to be a drunk driver. She followed him to a gas station and remained out of site as she described him to the operator. “He almost killed me” “He’s driving like a maniac” “He’s throwing up” “Do you want me to follow him?” The operator told her not to follow the man and after taking a description of the suspect and the vehicle, she dispatched officers to the area. When the officer passed the vehicle he was looking for in the opposite direction, he executed an immediate U-turn and began to follow him. The officer’s report noted speeding and weaving for why he pulled the car over. The driver told the officer he had smoked weed and had a few beers hours before. The officer smelled alcohol and for some reason gasoline on the driver. After failing several roadside field sobriety tests the driver was arrested and brought to the station on suspicion of OUI. The case proceeded to trial.
At the first scheduled jury trial, client showed up so late that the case was continued to another date. This gave the ADA the opportunity to provide evidence that had not previously been available. The booking procedure at the police station had been recorded on video. The Commonwealth would later, against Lawyer’s objection, enter this into evidence at trial.
Jury selection proceeded quickly as the jury pool was quite small that day. The trial proceeded quickly. During the short trial, Attorney was able to show that Client was in fact not drunk or impaired on the night in question. Attorney also elicited testimony showing that the client’s driving was not egregious, the young, black male merely exceeding the speed limit by 5 miles per hour, the weaving, his tires touching but not crossing the yellow line. Certain evidence related to the field sobriety tests was excluded from evidence and after less than an hour the jury returned a verdict of not guilty in time for lunch. The judge found him not responsible for speeding as well.
