DUI Stop in San Jacinto, No Report Sent to DMV, Set Aside

Our client was returning home to San Jacinto from a work-related dinner with colleagues.  He had consumed more than one beer that evening and was hustling home because his wife often scolded him when he came home late.  He had no passengers with him.  The roads were deserted (no pun intended) at this hour as he traveled through the desert to get home.

After he turned south off the I-10 Freeway, he took some smaller streets to reach his home.  While doing so, he was allegedly observed to be speeding by a Riverside County Sheriff.  However, the deputy sheriff did not make contact with our client until after our client had backed his car into his garage and was walking toward the door to enter his home.

At that moment, the deputy had his Taser unholstered and apparently had trouble getting the client’s attention, so when the client was later arrested, he was arrested on charges of not only DUI, but delaying / obstructing and /or resisting arrest under Penal Code § 148(a)(2).

Our client described the deputy (who may have been a rookie) as first telling another officer that he observed the client driving at 120 miles per hour, but then agreed he had no reliable evidence of this and revised his estimated speed to 85 miles per hour.  

This was relevant insofar as California permits the People to allege and seek a sentence enhancement for being DUI and speeding 30 or more miles per hour above the speed limit on a highway and / or 20 or more miles per hour above the speed limit on a city street, which carries a minimum 60 days in county jail custody (Vehicle Code § 23582).

The client was then taken to the CHP station and later submitted to a breath test there.  He was told by the sheriff that his blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.16%, or double the legal limit.

Our client had no prior criminal history and in fact was a veteran of the U.S. Army.  He had served time in Afghanistan.

Our client was eventually released from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department after signing a promise to appear in the Banning Courthouse for his arraignment.

About two weeks later, the client called Greg Hill & Associates and described what had happened to him.  The client was anxious that with a conviction, he would lose his job.  He asked how such cases are handled.

Greg said, based on what the client described, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office would probably charge him with misdemeanor violations of California Vehicle Code §§ 23152(a) (“Driving While Impaired by Alcohol”) and Vehicle Code § 23152(b) (“Driving With a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.08% or Higher by Weight”), as well as possibly Penal Code § 148(a)(2) (“Obstructing, Delaying and/or Resisting a Police Officer”).  

However, Greg explained that because the client was a veteran, he was eligible to have his DUUI case placed on military diversion under Penal Code § 1001.80.  Greg explained how diversion worked in general and why this was such a good deal for him because it would avoid a conviction for DUI, as well as all the court fees and fines associated with a conviction.  More importantly, since there was not a conviction, the DMV would not suspend his license.

Greg then explained, however, that the DMV would separately have an “Admin Per Se” hearing on the client’s driving privileges, which would usually take place before the case in court resolved.

Our office was then retained by the client and we reserved a DMV Hearing through the San Bernardino County Driver’s Safety Office of the DMV.

The hearing date then arrived and the DMV still had not sent us any police report or any other documents whatsoever that the DMV intended to rely upon during the hearing.

Greg called the DMV to ask if such documents had been received by the DMV and mailed to our office.

Oddly, the DMV stated that it had not received any documents from any law enforcement agency concerning our client and that it would set aside the suspension of our client’s driver’s license and reinstate his driving privileges.

This was, in 25 years of practice, the first time Greg had the DMV do this.  Greg happily informed the client of this fortuitous development.

This summary is offered to exemplify the importance of reserving a DMV hearing.  Had our office not done so, the DMV would have automatically suspended our client’s driver’s license even without a police report.