Plano DWI Lawyer Blog

I have learned the Collin County law enforcement, in connection with the District Attorney's Office, is planning to conduct a "no refusal" weekend ove the 4th of July.  This means that the police will be seeking search warrants for the blood of all DWI suspects that refuse to submit voluntarily to breath or blood samples.

Collin County will be operating one as well.
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Posts: 51 | From: McKinney, Texas, USA | Registered: 02-19-01

Motorists in Collin and Dallas Counties, and throughout Texas, will now have fewer protections against having forcible blood draws. A few months ago I blogged about SB 261, a bill that sought to expand the authority of police to obtain a sample of blood from driving while intoxicated suspects.  The changes proposed to the law in that bill have become the law in Texas.

 The police will now have the authority to take blood samples from DWI suspects when there was an accident that required someone other than the DWI suspect to be taken to a hospital or medical clinic. In addition, it authorizes blood draws for people accused of DWI with child - a state jail felony, and people who are suspected of having two prior DWI convictions or a prior felony DWI conviction.

 Bear in mind that this law gives police authority to take the samples without your consent or the approval of a neutral, detached judge through the warrant process. If the police are convinced that their suspect is, in fact, intoxicated, why the legislative push to cut judges out of the process? Why not present the evidence to a judge who can review it? I would anticipate many more blood draw cases. The upshot of all this? There will be many more opportunities for me  to challenge the lawfulness of these warrantless, non consensual blood draws in specific cases on behalf of my clients.

In a previous post I discussed the Intoxilyzer 5000, which is the device used in Texas to take a breath sample from motorists who are suspected of being intoxicated while driving.  As I mentioned in the previous post, attorneys are having increasing success in obtaining court orders to have CMI, the manufacturers of the Intoxilyzer 5000, turn over the source code that is found in the software supporting the device to defense attorneys who seek to review it. 

Now, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered the source code to be turned over.  Rather than abide by a lawful court Order, the manufacturer has refused.  In turn, authorities in certain Minnesota counties will no longer use the Intoxilyzer 5000 in DWI cases because the results will be inadmissible in court unless the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer 5000 relents and complies with the court order to allow attorneys access to the source code.  

It is a fundamental principle of our law that people accused of crimes are entitled to confront the witnesses against them and access the evidence that is utilized by those who seek to convict them.  Until CMI is willing to allow defense experts to review the source code, attorney will continue to press forward with this claim.