Today, one of our founding attorneys, Jonathan James, was able to secure a directed verdict of not guilty for one of our clients. Our client was charged with DUI in Winnebago County and the State’s Attorney’s office was vigorously prosecuting the case and assigned 2 attorneys to the trial team. During the State’s case, they called a 17 year veteran of the police force who testified that he was one of the most experienced DUI officers within the Department and had substantial training and experience in conducting field sobriety testing. However, on cross examination, Attorney James was able to pick apart the manner in which the police officer administered the field sobriety tests and showed that it was inconsistent with the standards promulgated within the Nation Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s manual on DWI Detection and Field Sobriety testing, commonly referred to as the NHTSA manual. After hearing all the evidence from the State, the court ruled that due to the officer’s misadministration of the field sobriety tests that the State had not met their burden of proof and directed a verdict in favor of our client finding him not guilty.
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