Pittsburgh DUI Attorney

The Officer as a Witness

We need to make one thing clear at the outset: Police officers are not impartial witnesses, they are your accusers. It's an officer's job to collect evidence of guilt and make arrests. Pittsburgh criminal defense lawyer Blaine Jones has represented more than 10,000 clients. From his time with the Allegheny Public Defender's Office, he has dedicated his career to fighting for the rights of clients accused of a crime by law enforcement. Consider the field sobriety tests. These are tests meant to determine whether you are intoxicated – in the opinion of a police officer whose job it is to collect evidence of your guilt! In other words, you don't stand a chance.

Challenging Police Testimony in Pittsburgh DUI Cases

Blaine Jones defends clients facing drunk driving charges by aggressively challenging evidence in your case:

• Traffic Stop: An officer must have probable cause to make a traffic stop. Yet many ignore this most basic right. Some officers like to pull over work trucks with ladder racks out after dark – assuming they went to happy hour and are driving home. It is not illegal to weave within your own lane. If an officer lacked cause for the stop, a dismissal of the charge is possible.
• Probable cause for arrest: Glassy eyes and odor of alcohol make it into 99 percent of arrest reports for a reason. Once stopped, an officer must have cause to make an arrest or request that you perform sobriety testing.
• Officer Conduct: At all times, you must be treated with dignity and respect. When that does not occur, even in cases where you could be proven to have been driving drunk, an experienced defense attorney can often negotiate a reduction or dismissal of the charges.
• Officer Training: Officers commonly arrest motorists for drunk driving. But these are complex cases. Specific training is required. Sobriety tests and breathalyzers must be performed in accordance with strict rules. When an officer acts outside those guidelines, a reduction or dismissal of the charges is possible.

Cruiser videos, booking videos and an officer's conduct history can all shed light on the circumstances of a particular arrest. 

A veteran Pittsburgh drunk driving defense lawyer will challenge the actions of officers involved in your arrest and fight for the best outcome possible for your case.