DUI criminal defense attorney Larry Forman cross examines a confident cop on the stand and completely stuns him and the everyone else in the court room. In fact, the cop's police report gets taken away on the stand. Watch this video to see what happens to these DUI charges!
Synopsis: As I have said, this is definitely one of my favorite judges to have tried a case in front of. As you will see he is extremely respectful, polite, and cordial. He is also the FIRST judge in my career who, after watching me perform, accepted my version of the jury instructions (since the prosecutor was very new). He was also the first judge to compliment me on my skills after the trial, despite the loss.
So, Mr. Woods was at a restaurant with his girlfriend and had 3 drinks over about a 3 hour period. It was an extremely cold night (-22F with the wind chill). They watched the game, the girlfriend had lots of drinks, and so she couldn't drive. He got pulled over for speeding, allegedly.
The police officer saw that my client was wearing a light long-sleeve shirt, and DESPITE THAT didn't give him a chance to get his jacket in the car. Meanwhile, he went inside his WARM CAR for a period while my client stood OUT IN THE FREEZING COLD. What a scumbag, right? Well, my client, who is probably about to contract pneumonia just says "take me to jail."
The officer never performs the remainder of the field tests (he did the HGN on the scene) and my client refuses the breath test. However, he requests a BLOOD TEST and the cop says NO! Sounds like we got this in the bag, right? Well, so did everybody else in the room.
The judge, the prosecutor, the cop, me, the clerks, our 3 or 4 viewers in the audience, even my client, all thought we won. They came back guilty with no jail time and no license suspension (so we beat the offer; technically still a W, according to the play book).
I asked the jurors afterwards what happened -- "we didn't believe your client."
Mr. Woods was SO nervous, that he WOULD NOT MAKE ANY EYE CONTACT WITH A SINGLE JUROR. Something that nearly all of my clients do naturally, he couldn't. So they didn't believe him and convicted him.
If only they had believed his testimony, we would have won. Ces't la vie, as the French say.
Judge: Honorable Jeff Dotson, Boyle County District Court Division D Defense attorney: Larry Forman, a.k.a. the DUI Guy Prosecutor: Justin Johnson Arresting Officer: Keith Addison, Boyle County Sheriff's Office
