DUI

O

OrangeBlooded

500+ Posts
spoke with a good friend of mine from South Carolina today. after a few minutes of small talk, he mentions some "bad news" being a dui. we chat briefly about it before he mentions he has another dui "pending" in georgia. he was concerned about the SC arrest being labeled as his seond one. i had no idea about the one in georgia. his home state is SC.

i told him i have no idea about the laws on second offenses but perhaps that they don't carry from state to state on convictions; being that dui laws are state laws. any insight?

secondly, he was concerned that, if in fact the georgia arrest doesn't end in conviction, the sc magistrate could use the arrest in georgia against him. i told him i had no idea, but that maybe, based on the legality, the magistrate couldn't. pure speculation on my part.

he has a great lawyer. i told him that he'll have the answers. however, we are going to "catch up" this weekend and i wanted to give him some better insight on his own situation. i figured HF would be a great resource on legal advice (save the morality bits. i've already given them to him)
 
This will be a second conviction. I believe that most state laws include previous DWI convictions from other states as 'prior convictions." The only way to ignore the previous conviction would be probably be to show the elements of DWI in the other state are insufficient to support a conviction under South Carolina state law. This would be tough to show.

In Texas the second DWI would still be a misdemeanor. The main drawback is that the DA is less likely to give you the standard probation deal. Third one is going to be a felony and probably a bit of jail.
 
Was he actually convicted or did he plea guilty/no context in Georgia prior to being arrested for the second DUI? If the Georgia matter is still pending and no plea or trial ending in conviction has occurred, then the Georgia DUI probably will not count as a first DUI. For a DUI/DWI to constitute a "second DWI" for enhancement purposes, the first DWI must have ended in a conviction/guilty plea prior to being arrested for the second DWI. A person could commit five DWIs, but if all five were attained before the first was adjudicated, they will all count as a "first DWI".

This rationale, I believe, holds true for all offenses that can be enhanced because of a prior conviction of the same offense. In Texas, for instance, a third theft conviction will be enhanced one degree. But if a person commits a third theft while the prior two thefts are still pending in court, the third theft will legally be viewed as his first theft. This is the law in Texas, it may be different in South Carolina, but I doubt it because there is a constitutional law component to the rationale behind this treatment of prior convictions for enhancement purposes.
 
Not to mention:

Falco has also been convicted of family violence, assault, forgery and multiple theft charges, according to records.
 
In Texas, he would be looking at two DWI "firsts" if the Georgia case was, in fact, pending; ie, he hasn't plead guilty/no contest and is awaiting trial. However, someone with two DWI "firsts" will likely be treated a lot differently than someone with just one DWI.
 
my wife prosecutes DWIs in texas. she could not enhance a charge to DWI-second on a guy who had another DWI pending in the next county. this dude got two in a within a month of each other. if it is "pending" then no final disposition has been made. therefore the guy lucked out and was facing two DWI-1st in two counties at the same time. he ended up pleading to a lesser charges for both. he has no DWIs on his record currently.
 
To piggyback off of this, who's a highly recommended dwi lawyer in the Austin area? I've heard Chris Gunter is good, but expensive.

And, believe it or not, this is for a friend. lol.
 
I have a friend that just used Chris Gunter and he got his DWI dropped. You will pay, but worth it.
 
Not that it matters to the zealots, but a LOT of people get arrested for DWI that are not intoxicated. It happened to me and Chris Gunther solved the problem. I just got the benefit of having to pay a LOT of money to defend myself. Driving a car after drinking a beer is not illegal, driving a car while intoxicated is. There is a huge difference.

Those DWI Task Force guys will arrest you for anything because they know that they are going to get paid time and a half to go to all of the court appearances. There is a reason why they typically end up making more than the Chief and it's not because they love what they do. They have just found a way to bilk the City taxpayers, and force people into expensive legal defenses, just so they can earn that overtime at court.

I have no problem throwing the book at the people caught driving at double the limit. My issue is with the people who get screwed over because of one beer. There are far too many cases a year when someone blows under the legal limit and is still booked.
 
I am glad I never have to deal with the stress of being pulled over and whether I am over the limit or not. I have a simple solution and that is to simply never, ever drink if I will be driving, ever at any time of the day/night. I think it would take away from the fun of an event trying to figure out where to moderate consumption to where I am "okay" to drive.
 
Loop, I commend you for your attitude. I'm not an advocate of having 12 beers and then hittin the road, but I don't think you're drunk after 1 or two.
 
I totally agree with you but my thing is that I don't want to even have to wonder. Did I eat enough food? Did the host make the drink stronger than normal? Have I had enough water? All these things are variables to compete with the constant of the cops wanting to nail your ***.

I also don't need alcohol to have fun in any way or form. Not that people who drink do, I just don't so I am not missing out on anything from my perspective. I am not a T-Totaler either. I enjoy beer and drinks when I have them. I am just very careful as to when.

It is quite empowering to know that I can get pulled over for a talilight missing or burnt out and have zero to worry about. I can blow in their meter that second and come up with zeros. Game. Set. Match.

I am also available to my friends if they need me. I live close to downtown and UT and all they have to do is call me any hour of the night and I will put some pajamas on and head to get them. If they need to go eat to sober up, a ride home or crash on my couch, so be it. I like being there for that as well.

I do feel sorry for people who get hit with a DUI if they are indeed innocent but that can be avoided. Nobody makes anybody drink. It is a risk each individual has to make for themselves. Then there is the luck factor. Something anybody who plays poker knows is needed.
 
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