Florida Lawyer Sparks Debate About Rights at DUI Checkpoint

Discussion in 'In the News' started by Ken Anderson, Feb 12, 2015.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    What do you think of this idea? I wonder how that would fare across the country, particularly for those who are not lawyers?
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Years ago, I was pulled over after leaving a bar in Anaheim. I hadn't (and haven't) had a beer since high school and, even then, I would mostly nurse one beer until I could dump it out when no one was looking. I don't like the taste or the feeling of being drunk. I was at the bar because I was the VP of our labor union local and the officers were going to go out to the bar after the union meeting to talk strategy.

    After drinking soft drinks for hours, I left. The freeway on-ramp was about a quarter mile from the bar, and a cop followed me onto the freeway, pulling me over as soon as I entered the freeway. At least at that time, pulling someone over because they had left a bar was not considered a justified reason for a traffic stop, so he told me I was driving erratically which, of course, I wasn't.

    Within minutes, another cop had joined him, and they were very rude, treating me like a drunk who was endangering everyone else on the freeway. I did the walking the straight line thing, the standing on one leg thing, and counting backwards from twenty-five. Meanwhile, all the other guys, who were drunk, were driving by, while they wasted their time with me. After I passed all of these tests, and offered to play hopscotch for them if they had any chalk, he told me he was going to let me off with a warning.

    "A warning for what? I didn't do anything."

    "For driving erratically."

    "You know full well that you pulled me over only because you had seen me leaving the bar. That might have been a reasonable assumption but, the facts are that I am probably the only person leaving that bar who wasn't drunk. I wasn't drunk because I don't drink, and you know that I wasn't driving erratically, whatever you mean by that."

    I don't know what he might have written in his report but there were no tickets or written warnings.
     
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