Pacific Beach Criminal Defense Attorney
Pacific Beach is a popular nightlife neighborhood located just south of La Jolla. With a variety of bars, eateries, boutiques, bike shops, and yoga studios it tends to draw in a younger crowd. Known for its big party scene, most offenses in Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach involve driving under the influence. At Monder Law Group, we have established a strong DUI defense reputation in the Pacific Beach legal community. If you are found driving under the influence in Pacific Beach and are arrested it is important for you to know that you will be booked Downtown in San Diego County Central Jail. San Diego County Central Jail is located at 1173 Front Street San Diego, CA 92101. The hours of operation for Central Jail are Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM. Monder Law Group is located only five minutes away from Central Jail and our criminal defense team of legal experts can provide legal visits any day of the week between the hours of 7 AM to 9 PM. Contact Pacific Beach Criminal Defense Attorney Vik Monder at (619)405-0063 for an immediate criminal defense in your DUI case!
You Should Always Decline a Field Sobriety Test
If during a traffic stop you are suspected of driving impaired, the first thing the officer is going to look for are physical manifestations that show you are under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. If the officer believes that you show signs of blood shot eyes, slurred speech, or he smells alcohol on your breath, you will be asked to step away from your car in order for the officer to conduct a field sobriety test. This test consists of different mental and physical exercises that are used by law enforcement to determine whether or not you are driving impaired. The mental exercises will check your attention level by requiring you to count numbers or recite the alphabet forwards and backwards. The physical exercises may check for involuntary jerking of your eyes as you look to the side or for loss of balance and coordination of your body. The officer conducting the field sobriety test may require you to stand on one leg for thirty seconds with your eyes closed while you touch your nose with your index finger or to walk heel to toe in a straight line and turn back towards the officer conducting the exercise. As you can imagine the problem with the field sobriety test is that all of these exercises are left to the officer’s subjective interpretation of the results. These same results will then be admitted as evidence in the prosecution’s DUI case against you. It is important that you know that you are not required by law to undergo any of these exercises and should always decline to take a field sobriety test. That being said, be aware that a refusal to take a field sobriety test could result in you being arrested and taken to the police station to be administered a mandatory chemical blood test. If you have already been subjected to a field sobriety test and failed any of the exercises, do not worry this is not conclusive evidence that you were under the influence! Given the subjective nature of the field sobriety test, an experienced DUI defense attorney will be able to successfully poke holes in the prosecution’s case. Pacific Beach DUI Defense Attorney Vik Monder’s defense strategy will consist of reviewing your family, educational, mental and medical history for any external factors that could have led you to fail the field sobriety test. Perhaps, you come from a family of immigrants and English is not your first language so you could not understand the officer’s instructions. Or maybe you are dyslexic so you had a very difficult time with the exercises that required you to process numbers and letters. Or maybe you suffer from a mental or physical condition that prevented you from completing the exercises successfully. There are countless other explanations for why a person may have failed a field sobriety test, at Monder Law Group we will help you find the best explanation that meets your specific needs!
You Should Always Decline a Roadside Breathalyzer Test
Before law enforcement can arrest you for driving under the influence, the officer must have probable cause that you were driving impaired. A law enforcement officer could establish probable cause by your failure to pass the field sobriety test or by attempting to subject you to a preliminary alcohol screening breath test. The roadside breathalyzer test consists of you breathing deeply into a handheld breathalyzer device that the officer carries in his patrol car to measure the presence of alcohol in your lungs. At this time, it is important to point out that if you are pulled over for a traffic stop under the suspicion of driving impaired and you are under the legal drinking age of twenty-one or you are on probation for a DUI, you will be required to consent to a roadside breathalyzer test. If you do not fall under either of these two categories, you are not required by law to take a roadside breathalyzer test when pulled over for a traffic stop. However, your refusal to do so could lead to you being arrested and taken to the police station to be administered a mandatory chemical blood test. If you have already consented to a roadside breathalyzer test and the device reported high readings, do not worry this is not conclusive evidence that you were under the influence! The officer conducting the preliminary alcohol screening breath test is required to be trained on using the specific type of roadside breathalyzer device he carries and the device must be regularly calibrated and tested for accurate readings. This human aspect of the roadside breathalyzer test is what makes it an unreliable source that should be avoided at all costs. Generally, roadside breathalyzer tests are unreliable because failure to use the device properly or to provide adequate maintenance to the device will result in inaccurate high readings. Pacific Beach DUI Defense Attorney Vik Monder knows how to attack the officer’s training to demonstrate improper handling and maintenance of the roadside breathalyzer device in order to ensure that your false high ratings do not hold up in court!
You Are Required by Law to Consent to a Chemical Test While in Custody for a DUI
If you are arrested for driving a motor vehicle while impaired, you will be taken into custody and at the police station be compelled to submit to a chemical test. In California, there are two types of chemical tests that a person charged with driving under the influence can choose from when available, an evidential breathalyzer test or a chemical blood test. The evidential breathalyzer test consists of the officer taking a sample of your breath from his desktop at the police station with a evidential breath test machine that is used to measure your blood alcohol concentration level by the grams of alcohol per 210 liters of your breath. The chemical blood test consists of the officer drawing a sample of your blood to measure your blood alcohol concentration level by the grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. The legal breath or blood alcohol concentration level that you are allowed to drive under in California is less than .08 percent. If either your evidential breathalyzer reading or your blood work comes back from the lab showing a breath or blood alcohol concentration level of .08 percent or higher, you will be deemed to be legally under the influence in California. It is crucial that you understand that in California it is mandatory for you take a chemical test after being arrested for a DUI. Your refusal to take one of these two chemical tests after being in custody could cause a one year suspension of your driver’s license and if convicted for driving under the influence, you will receive an enhancement of forty-eight hours in jail. If have been arrested in Pacific Beach and subjected to a chemical test that resulted in a higher breath or blood alcohol concentration level than .08 percent, you will be formally charged for driving under the influence. You will need a Pacific Beach Criminal Defense Attorney that specializes in driving under the influence cases. Attorney Vik Monder understands the technicalities involved in DUI charges because of his vast experience successfully defending driving under the influence cases. He knows that having a high breath or blood alcohol concentration level does not necessarily mean that you will be convicted of driving under the influence. If you chose to take a chemical blood test and your blood alcohol level is unusually high, attorney Vik Monder will request that your blood sample be retested. If you chose to take an evidential breathalyzer test, attorney Vik Monder will search for an explanation for an inaccurate reading. Perhaps your breathing pattern at the time of the test was a little off or you blew too hard on the breathalyzer device causing it to register a false reading. There are a number of external non-alcohol related factors that may account for your high blood alcohol concentration level. At Monder Law Group, we will inquire about your criminal and medical history, review the specific facts of your case and look at your breath or blood alcohol concentration levels to determine the best defense strategy to attack the results of your chemical test!
