Evidence Used By Prosecution To Convict On A DUI In Marin County
In this article, you will learn:
- What to expect if you are convicted of a DUI
- Potential penalties of being convicted
- Important evidence used during DUI proceedings
The DA will need to prove you were driving and that you were above 0.08% or impaired. They’ll bring in a forensic toxicologist who will discuss the machine working correctly and examine the records and margin of error. The arresting police officer can talk about the impairment charge or use video to show the driving, your interaction with the officer, how you were moving, and how you did on the field sobriety tests, which are very often recorded. There is a lot of evidence that they can use to try and convict you of a DUI, and sometimes the officers will go back to the bar where you said you were or they watched you pull out of the parking lot, talk to the bartenders, or even find receipts. Sometimes they get drinking information from the people you were with that day.
What To Expect If Convicted Of DUI In Marin County
Concerning a conviction of what they call a standard first offense in Marin County, we are talking about probation between three to five years if you are convicted. In almost every case, it is three years on the first offense in Marin County. It’s unsupervised probation that you are put on, and what that means is that there is a maximum penalty of six months in jail if you violate your probation. We do something called halftime in California, so the most you would do is three months in jail on a six month penalty. Now, you really have to mess up on probation, get another DUI, or something else severe to get maxed out on that probation. Typically, you are put on probation, and there is no probation officer to report to. You just need to stay out of trouble, and you are not allowed to have any measurable amount of alcohol which means 0.01 in your system when you are driving.
If the officer pulls you over during your probation and suspects you have alcohol in your system when driving, you must take a chemical test. License suspension is something that can also happen if you get convicted in court. Typically you are going to get a six-month suspension. You can do an ignition interlock instead of that for six months or do one month of no driving followed by 12 months of work restricted driving, and that’s just for the court part of it. The DMV is different, and I can go into details if you want to contact me about that. Other penalties are the fine of about $2000, and they’ll let you do a payment plan over three years of probation, so it’s less than $100 a month typically on that. They’ll also want you to do two days in jail. Still, it would end up being typically a day or two at the most on the Sherriff’s work program instead of jail, but typically such a short period of time, they would have you doing something like working at Goodwill.
In any sort of standard first offense case, you will not end up going to jail unless you mess up your probation or decide you don’t want to do the Sherriff’s work program. Feel free to contact me to discuss and we’ll talk as long as you like. I’ll answer all your questions about this and any other potential penalties. Additionally, DUI conviction does result in getting two points on your DMV record and your insurance can go up. I do a free consultation for anyone who wants to talk about their DUI case.
For more information on Prosecuting Evidence In A DUI Case In Marin County, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you seek by calling (415) 886-6333 today.
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