Southern Maine Criminal Lawyer Blog

Even if you are not stoned, you can lose your license in Maine if you are convicted of DUI marijuana, also known as DUI weed. Maine drug law says that if there is probable cause to believe you are under the influence of some drug, and you show a positive test for a drug metabolite in your urine or hair tests, your driver’s license will be suspended.

The problem with this marijuana impaired driving law is threefold.

First, probable cause is a very low standard of proof. It isn’t even proof that something is more likely than not, it is a mere suspicion based on observed facts. How little proof is required? The case of State v. Webster, 2000 ME 115, the defendant made an illegal U-turn. When police stopped him he denied any recent drinking, but the officer smelled alcohol on his breath. The officer then gave Webster field sobriety tests which he PASSED. Despite passing the tests, Webster was arrested. His breath tested at a .10% alcohol.

In 2013 the Supreme Court held in Missouri v. McNeely, 133 S.Ct. 1552 (2013), that a blood draw is a search requiring a warrant or a warrant exception. Since then I’ve been arguing that the same logic applies to a breath test. I based this argument on Skinner v. Ry. Labor Executives’ Ass’n, 489 U.S. 602 (1989) that held a breath test is a search. Skinner did not address the warrant issue because of special circumstances associated with regulation of the railway industry. Up until now I’ve had little success. Judges are reluctant to change decades of practice, even if that practice was unconstitutional. Last week I finally won a round in this fight.

In last week’s case my client was given field tests and then asked to voluntarily come down and take a breath test. He asked the natural question, “What if I don’t want to?” The officer told him that he would be arrested and taken to jail if he didn’t agree to take the test. If he agreed to take the test the officer promised to bring him home and not to jail, regardless of the test result. I moved to suppress the breath test for a lack of a warrant or warrant exception.

In a motion alleging a warrantless search, the state has the burden of proving there was a valid warrant exception. Recognized warrant exceptions are search incident to arrest, consent, exigent circumstances and a few others. The Supreme Court, in Arizona v. Gant, 129 S.Ct. 1710 (2009), limited the search incident to arrest exception to the extent that it cannot apply to breath or blood tests. Exigent circumstances are situations where it is extremely impractical for the officer to obtain a warrant in time to conduct a meaningful search, or some sort of emergency. In my case the state did not argue exigent circumstances. It is unlikely that any such argument would have been successful. Instead they focused on consent.

The Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is putting on a seminar to train lawyers to defend DUI cases.  It will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn, Freeport, Maine, on August 22, 2014.  (In Maine that is OUI – Operating Under the Influence.)  I have the honor to be one of the instructors.  I am teaching Field Sobriety Testing.  Other speakers are Jan Semenoff, Matt Nichols, John Webb and Ed Folsom.

Jan Semenoff is coming from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  He was a police officer for the City of Saskatoon Police Department where he was specially trained in breath testing.  During his service with the SPD, and after retiring from that department, he was a factory trained breath test technician on many models of breath testing device.  He has published papers on breath testing and other subjects related to alcohol the science of alcohol measurement.  He is recognized as one of North America’s leading experts on the subject of breath testing.  On a personal note,  Jan trained me on the Intoxilyzer 8000, the machine used by police in Maine.  Jan will spend two hours training Maine lawyers about the 8000.

I went to law school with Matt Nichols.  That was a long time ago.  Matt is one of the very top OUI trial lawyers in Maine.  He is perhaps the most innovative OUI defense lawyer I know.  Not surprisingly, Matt will teach Creative OUI Defenses.  His approaches to exposing the attempts of the Intoxilyzer 8000 manufacturers to hide information about the machine make for some of the best and most entertaining cross-examination.  After the witness says “i don’t know” for the fifteenth or twentieth time, jurors start to catch on that the machine may not be as good as the State of Maine and the manufacturer claim.