Following is a scenario relevant to the discussion of forcible restraint used by Colorado police officers to extract blood from a suspected drunk driver. The story outlined below conveys in summary form a real-life situation that played out on a Fort Collins roadside....
How credible are field sobriety tests?
For years, law enforcement has considered the results of breathalyzer tests and field sobriety tests to be irrefutable proof that a person was driving under the influence. However, recent studies have called into question the reliability of breathalyzer results....
Some things you might want to know about Colorado DUI breathalyzers
It’s notable, isn’t it, how often the general public simply accepts what law enforcers tell them at face value? That is especially apparent in the evidentiary realm, where prosecutors and other government officials often step up to say that a criminal law case has...
What could be reasonable suspicion or probable cause in a DUI stop?
It is stressful to see the flashing lights of a police car in your rear-view mirror, and it is natural to have questions as you pull to the shoulder of the road. Are you in trouble? Do the police have a reason to stop you? Will the police arrest you? In these...
Ban on breathalyzers: a reminder of their unreliability
Controversy has dogged the breathalyzer ever since an amateur chemist invented the device in 1954. Faulty readings convinced some courts to bar prosecutors from using results against people accused of driving under the influence. Authorities in the Great Lakes region...
Elephant in the room: breathalyzers’ departures from accuracy
We’ve got a problem across the United States concerning accuracy surrounding many arrests tied to drunk driving charges, and it’s not exactly a secret.Defense lawyers know it beyond the slightest doubt. Prosecutors know it. Judges are routinely confronted with the...
Update on Colorado’s revamped BAC testing regime
We recently informed readers of our criminal defense blogs at Shazam Kianpour & Associates in Denver that we would keep them timely updated on a key Colorado change in DUI-linked blood-alcohol testing.As we noted in our August 5 blog entry, that adjustment was...
Colorado’s free-DUI-testing move questioned, criticized
The thinking of Colorado lawmakers that spurred a recent and material change to the state’s legal blood-alcohol testing regime is clear enough.But it strongly begs this question: Was it wise?What became notably different on July 1 was the dramatically liberalized use...
Material error gives DUI matter off-the-charts significance
A seasoned and aggressive Colorado DUI defense attorney must often rely upon instincts, past experience and creativity when defending a client against drunk driving charges. We note on our website at the established Denver law firm of Shazam Kianpour & Associates...
Research panel urges states to reduce DUI limit to 0.05 percent
How can society reduce the number of drunk-driving fatalities? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was looking for evidence-based answers, so it turned to a panel from the nonprofit National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and...
