Our very own Bill Finn was a key player in a recent Driving While Impaired court case, which revealed a local sheriff’s deputy had violated the rights of his client by lying on the stand while testifying under oath. Ruling that the deputy had given false statements and testimonies, and was not competent to testify in any of his issued violations, the Wake County District Attorney dismissed 104 DWI cases and 71 traffic-related offenses in Raleigh, NC.
Rights in DWI Cases
Under North Carolina DWI law, a driver has certain rights after being pulled over by a police officer:
- A driver can refuse to take any sobriety test, but this gives the state the right to revoke the driver’s license for a year.
- A driver can call an attorney for advice, or have an onsite witness oversee the sobriety test, but the test has to happen within 30 minutes.
What Happened?
In the sheriff deputy’s recorded account, he had marked that the defendant chose not to request an onsite witness and had also refused to take the sobriety test. Upon investigation, Bill Finn unveiled that this account couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, the sheriff’s deputy didn’t give the defendant reasonable time (the full 30 minutes) to request a witness. He had also written and testified that the defendant refused to take the breath test when the defendant simply had questions she wanted answered prior to taking the test.
This wasn’t the first, or last, time the deputy had untruthfully stood and testified on the stand. In court, Bill Finn was able to reveal the deputy’s false statements and end his wide pattern of false testimony. The result? 175 DWI and traffic-related offenses issued by the deputy have been dismissed. READ THE FULL STORY HERE.