The concerned, well meaning citizen - DUI lay witnesses
Often DUI arrests are initiated by other drivers who see someone swerve or are cut off in traffic and then dial 911 to report a drunk driver. Most of the time these people mean well, and sometimes they are right, but things are not always what they seem. Some people have a compulsion to get involved, an over-developed sense of civic duty if you will. By the time a case gets to trial, their account of what they saw sometimes has grown from what they initially told the officer.
A recent story in the Phoenix New Times illustrates several points. A man watching Shannon Wilcutt at a cafe thought she looked intoxicated, thought he saw her downing several drinks, then watched her drive off with a four year old child in the car. He called police and then followed her until the police arrived.
When the police arrived she was arrested and charged with 3 felonies - even though a subsequent breathalyzer showed her BAC was .02. The story illustrates that the DUI lay witness does not always see what they think they see: as it turns out she was drinking glasses of water and not wine, she had just had surgery to remove dentures, and she had taken one hydrocodone pill.
The story illustrates that the police are not always right. She was unable to perform the field sobriety tests to the officer's satisfaction, not because she was intoxicated, but because she was overweight, asthmatic, and had a herniated disc in her back. None of which affects your ability to drive, but all of which would affect your ability to perform physical exercises on the roadside. The officer noted that her speech was slurred, but remember that she had just had dental surgery.
Of course when all of this came to light, including a BAC of .02, the state's attorney fixed it and dropped the charges right? Not so - she was indicted for DUI, drug possession (hydrocodone?) and the equivalent of South Carolina's child endangerment law. Two years and $12,000.00 in legal fees later, the charges were dismissed.
The stories of Shannon Wilcutt, Diana Sifford, and Phil Cisneros that are told in the Phoenix New Times article illustrate how persons who are charged with driving under the influence are guilty until proven innocent, how the punishment does not always fit the crime, and how the fever to catch drunk drivers can profoundly affect the lives of ordinary people.
