Our client was involved in an accident on I-75 in the city of Emerson, which is located in Bartow County.  In the accident, our client lost control of his van which span across the interstate and came to rest against the guard rail.  After the accident, our client was evaluated by EMS personnel and then an officer from the City of Emerson Police Department arrived on the scene.

When the officer spoke with our client, he explained that his van had been struck in the rear and that caused him to lose control of his vehicle and begin to spin.  The officer never investigated our client’s vehicle.  When questioned by the officer, our client initially denied drinking alcohol.  After the officer explained that he had in excess of 20 years of experience performing DUI investigations, our client acknowledged having consumed 1 beer.  The officer then attempted to perform the horizontal gaze nystagmus test upon our client.  However, this officer completely ignored the training he had received in the performance of this test.  The officer only performed 1 phase of the test and his report made it clear that he did not even understand what he was supposed to observe in that phase of the test.  After the HGN test, the officer had our client submit to a portable or preliminary breath test (PBT), which produced a positive result.

Then, the officer placed our client under arrest for DUI and read the Georgia Implied Consent Notice.  The Implied Consent Notice was read correctly, but after the reading of the notice, our client began asking questions about it.  This officer answered those questions and provided information to our client that was misleading and inaccurate.  As a result of this misinformation, our client’s breath test results of .107 and .105 on the Intoxilyzer 5000 were suppressed from evidence.

Prior to the trial, based on the defects we discovered in this case, Georgia DUI lawyer Ben Sessions negotiated a dismissal of our client’s DUI in exchange for a guilty plea to failure to maintain lane.  Our client paid a fine and walked out of court.  No probation or any other conditions were imposed upon our client.