DUI Blow 0.00%
Do police drop your DUI case if your breath sample result is 0.00? Hi, my name is Dale Savage and I’m a criminal defense attorney here in Charleston, SC. Today we’re going to discuss what happens in your DUI case when you provide a breath sample that results in a zero reading.
Police Don’t Dismiss the Case
If you thought the case gets dropped by the police and you don’t go to jail that night you might be surprised to learn that doesn’t happen. You still go to jail and you still have a DUI charge to defend, even when your breath test result is evidence you were not under the influence of alcohol.
DUI includes Under the Influence of drugs
The reason for that is police have other tools at their disposal to determine if you are under the influence of drugs if alcohol was not a factor. They can request a urine sample or a blood sample to be taken to test for drugs. You can refuse to provide a urine or blood sample but that will trigger the implied consent laws and your license to drive will be suspended for 6 months. If you do agree to provide a sample, you will be transported to a local hospital by police where medical personnel should take the sample from you. From there, police take custody of that sample which is then submitted to the SC Law Enforcement Division SLED for analysis. You won’t know those results until several months later once it has been processed.
Legal Defenses
So, what does your attorney need to do when facing these types of cases.
- First is to determine where you provided a second implied consent form for the urine test.
- Was the test taken by medical personnel? I have had cases where the officer was the one who took the urine sample.
- Did police establish a proper chain of custody for the sample from the time it was taken until it was turned over to SLED.
This is important because we are talking about evidence preservation in a criminal case so the state must show that the evidence was in there control the entire time and who had control over it.
Mt. Pleasant, SC DUI Attorney
If have been charged with a DUI based on a urine or blood test and want to discuss your options, please call me at (843) 530-7813. I hope this video was helpful and thanks for watching.