Legislative Update
The following is a list of all pending bills I have found dealing with DWI and related subjects. To access the full text of these bills or see their status in committee, go to: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/
HB 169 Author: Smith, Todd
Relating to the authority of the Texas Department of Public Safety and certain local law enforcement agencies to establish a checkpoint on a highway or street to determine whether persons are driving while intoxicated.
HB 170 Author: Aycock
This bill addresses the extrapolation issue and amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide as follows:
For purposes of the prosecution of an offense relating to the operating of a motor vehicle or watercraft while intoxicated, it is presumed that the person had an alcohol concentration equal to or higher than 0.08 at the time of the offense if that level of alcohol concentration is shown by an analysis of a specimen of the person's breath, blood, or urine taken from the person not later than 90 minutes after the time of the person's arrest.
HB 286 Author: Martinez Fischer
Relating to the appointment and duties of and the funding for an Executive Commissioner for the prevention of driving while intoxicated. This bill creates a policy making a cabinet level position under the Governor’s office to oversee and direct the state’s DWI related legislative and administrative initiatives.
Blood Search Warrants
In many of your jurisdictions, prosecution and police had been conducting "no refusal" weekends, meaning that if a defendant is arrested for DWI and refuses to give a sample of his breath, the prosecution will seek an evidentiary search warrant and have the defendant’s blood drawn for testing. Although an official study has not been completed, prosecutors report anecdotally that the average blood-alcohol content for these search warrant cases is .20. There are now some municipalities, including Austin, where the police are seeking search warrants for any refusal case, instead of just conducting the program on targeted weekends. This effort is a result to counteract the high breath test refusal rate in Texas, which is now estimated to be well over 50%.
As a result, there are several bills pending in this legislative session that would address various aspects of these blood search warrant cases. See Legislative Update.
Article continued here.
Can washing your windows with window washer fluid cause a positive breath test?
You might be interested to find out the answer is yes, but only because the officer in this case did not allow the suspect requisite time to disperse mouth alcohol before testing. However, even more interesting is the fact that in Sweden, the legal limit for blood-alcohol is .02, not .08. Read the article here: http://www.thelocal.se/16326.html
“Safe Ride Home” may not be so safe
In Redding, California, Bert 'n' Ernie's Bar and Grill is one of the more popular bars in town and they advertise a "Safe Ride Home" van to take people home. It's commonly known as the "Drunk Van." You guessed it- this article explains how the driver of that van was arrested for DWI. Also of interest, however, is the law that every defendant arrested for DWI that evening had his/her name printed on the front page of the paper: http://www.redding.com/news/2009/mar/15/north-state-briefs-march-15-2010/
This newsletter has been provided by the Texas Center for the Judiciary pursuant to a grant from TxDOT. If you have suggestions for items to be included in this Newsletter, or wish to be removed from the Newsletter mailing list, please contact:
Judge David L. HodgesJudicial Resource Liaison
dhodges@yourhonor.com