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Steve Keene
Ron and Lowell,
My daughter goes to trial every week on a DUI case in one of the counties in North Texas. She got a cop from Milford up there where they have a speed trap on I-35E and asked him about the roadside sobriety test and if he did it correctly. He said yes. She asked how many seconds they gave the defendent to perform the test. The cop said the required amount of time. She pulled the body cam and ran the tape and the cop gave him eight seconds. She asked if this was a typical stop. He said yes. She walked up and laid a large book on the desk and asked the officer what page of the official state of Texas DPS guideline book did he find that the defendent should be given 8 seconds to complete the test. The officer said, "There is a book?" The test was supposed to take 10 seconds.
The judge said, "Officer you thought this was going to be easy didn't you?
My daughter asked if the Milford police department had gone over the procedures in the DPS guidelines, Turns out the entire police department did not know there was a book. The defendent was declared not guilty in a directed verdict and the Police Department was directed to place a guideline book in each police car.
The next time she got a Milford police officer they were loaded for bear. She asked the cop what the requirements for the defendent to do according to the DPS guidelines. The cop rattled them off......you have to submit to a field sobriety test or a breathylyzer or be informed that you can lose your license for six months , etc. She said that these are listed on a certain page is that correct. "Yes he said." There is one right the defendent has that you are required to inform him of, "What is that right?" The officer could not tell her. She laid the DPS guideline book on the stand and asked him to turn to the page of defendant's requirements. He did. She asked him to turn to the next page and read it. It said the arresting officer is required to notify the defendent that he has a right to have a medical facility perform an independent test on the blood sample within two hours. "Where did you take my client?" "Jail." "Did you afford him that right or notify him of it?" "No," Result, not guilty.
She has since become an expert on the scientific methods of testing and is used to cross examine blood test experts to make them prove chain of custody of samples. She has the statistics of each facility and the times that the have gotten samples mixed up. Now when the prosecutors see she is ready to go to trial against them they plead down the case if she will let them or drop the charges completely. They have given her a nickname "Tiger Shark." I did not realize it but all the prosecutors of the different counties talk weekly with each other.
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