While you might be reading this information after your arrest, it is still good information to have moving forward. Had I known what I know now, my 2nd and 3rd would have turned out completely different. I share this with friends and family in case they find them in that unfortunate situation.
When you find yourself with police checking your sobriety and driving ability, you have to know every single question, every request made by the police is them building a case against you. If they think you are impaired, they will ask if you take any medication. If you take any medicine that could impair your ability to drive, DO NOT tell them. In my 2nd, they asked me this question and one medication I took at the time was Ambien. I said I took it when I needed to. They took my blood (if you have a previous conviction, blood will be taken by law) and my BAC was under the limit. If I hadn’t said Ambien, it would have been thrown out, but they said they would test my blood and if Ambien was found, they would charge me with a DWI 2nd, or I could take a plea of DWI 1st. Me answering that question to the police ultimately screwed me. I knew I had taken it the night before but wasn’t sure how late I took it because I was also drinking.
If this is your first time, you have every right to refuse anything they ask you to do. This is important because the police don’t have much to stand on to prove you were legally intoxicated. Just know that if you refuse, the police take your license and your license is automatically suspended, however, you have a better chance of getting your DWI thrown away. If you are positive you only had a couple of drinks and are not impaired, doing the sobriety tests or breathalyzer could result in them releasing you, just make sure you know you’re not beyond the legal limit. Also, remember that police can still arrest you below the legal limit if they feel you are too impaired to drive. It is ridiculous, but it does happen.
The most important part of dealing with the police is to be as respectful and polite as you can. If you are combative, they can easily add a resisting charge making matters worse. The judge will also see how you were with the police and consider this, so if you can refuse, do so politely and respectfully. Simply tell them you refuse to do anything without an attorney present and they have to stop. Use words like “no sir/ma’am”, “yes sir/ma’am”, “no thank you” and so on. This will go a long way whether you are upset or not, do not let that show through.
While I know our legal system claims “innocent until proven guilty”, once you’ve been through one of these, you realize it is quite the opposite. You are guilty and thrown in jail, then you have the chance to prove your innocence later on. Due to this, it is very important that during an arrest, you must do everything you can to not help the officers build a case against you.
If you are arrested, at this point you stop talking. You can answer simple questions that have nothing to do with your arrest but say nothing else about the arrest. The best thing is to sit in the back of the officer’s car and be quiet. There are cameras in the car and if you say anything incriminating in the back of the cop car, it can and will be used against you.
Unfortunately, there is also the chance you have an officer who isn’t so pleasant. On my 1st, I had heard it was a no-refusal weekend, so when she asked me if I would give blood, she did so aggressively and pulled my cuffed hands upward and hurt one of my shoulders. It still gives me problems to this day. They could be trying to put additional charges on you but keep your cool and keep being polite. You have to understand that you could be dealing with an officer who was involved with a drunk driver or knows someone who was hurt or killed, so DWI cases are personal to them. It’s wrong, but it does happen.
Once you are taken in to be processed, remember that anything you say there could be used against you, so continue your silence regarding your arrest and follow the process as you are asked. Usually, the in-take officers are much nicer, just be polite to them and they will return the respect. They know you don’t want to be there and they’ve probably already dealt with irritated people so your politeness will go a long way with them. As soon as you get the chance to make your phone call, call someone you know is responsible enough to get in touch with a bail bondsman to get the process started to bail you out. Depending on the time of day you are arrested, you could be in there for a few hours up to a full day. It depends on when the magistrate (the judicial officer who will set a bond on your case) is available to issue a bond on you. If you are arrested in the evening, you’ll be there all night until the magistrate sees your case in the morning. Once you see the magistrate the bail bondsman can get to work on bailing you out, which usually takes a few hours. If you don’t have anyone to call to bail you out, the jail will have bail bondsman numbers you can call from jail to get things going. A bail bondsman will charge you 10% of the total fine. If the magistrate sets your bond at $2,500, you will have to pay the bail bondsman $250. Now if you have the funds to pay your full bond, I would recommend doing that so you don’t have to report weekly to your bondsman. Part of the bondsman posting bail is they have to make sure you show up to court or they lose their money. Due to this, most bail bondsmen make you check in every week. While this doesn’t sound like a big deal, if your court date doesn’t happen for a year, or even two like in my case for my 3rd due to covid, those weekly check-ins are like water torture. If you pay your bond in full, there’s no checking in until your court date. If you have the money, pay the full bond.
Once you are out of jail, the best thing to do is contact an attorney the first chance you can!