Driving under the influence of alcohol (“DUI”) is a crime in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, and in all parts of Southern Maryland. If you have been arrested and charged with DUI, you will need experienced and courtroom-proven Maryland criminal defense lawyers like the ones at the Law Office of Robert Castro. Call us at (301) 870-1200 or use our contact page. We are St. Mary’s County, MD, DUI/DWI criminal defense lawyers with offices in Waldorf, Maryland.

In Maryland, most DUI convictions are obtained with the use of device and laboratory testing for the defendant’s blood alcohol level (“BAC”). Indeed, DUI is almost automatically proven if the testing discloses that the defendant had a 0.08% BAC level at the time of the traffic stop. That last part of the previous sentence is important. To obtain a conviction, the prosecuting attorneys must prove the BAC level at the time of the traffic stop. The timing is important. After the traffic stop, the accused is no longer operating a motor vehicle, and the person’s BAC level AFTER the stop is no longer important. The field test for BAC is rarely taken immediately after the traffic stop is made, and later tests — done at the police station — are definitely taken much later than the traffic stop. Because BAC levels rise (and fall), it is possible that the person’s BAC level at the time of the traffic stop was less than the BAC levels shown via the tests. Depending on the circumstances, if the tested BAC level was just at the 0.08% mark, a good argument can be made that the BAC level was less than that at the time of the traffic stop. As such, the defendant was not guilty of DUI at the time of the traffic stop since, remember, the defendant is no longer operating a motor vehicle after the traffic stop.

It may sound like a strange criminal defense, but depending on the case, it might be a potential winning defense. Every effort to defend against DUI charges should be made because a DUI conviction has serious life consequences. If convicted of a DUI for the first time, a person faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $1,000. There are also other serious consequences such as having 8 to 12 points added to the person’s driving record, which carries a license suspension of 6 months or more. It is also possible that the convicted person will have to enroll in an engine-interlock program where the person’s car engine will not start unless the person “blows” into a device and passes a BAC test. A conviction will also severely increase car insurance costs and have other negative life consequences.

Contact Waldorf, Maryland Criminal Defense Lawyer Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions, contact our office to speak to an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer at (301) 870-1200. We are Waldorf, MD, Criminal Defense lawyers. Our address is 2670 Crain Highway, Waldorf, MD 20601.