You Have Been Told To Take An Alford Plea, Should You?

You find yourself in a predicament where you are faced with charges.  Maybe you are guilty of one charge, but not the other.  You are offered a plea for both.  Maybe it is a good deal for the one, but not really for the other.  Should you take an Alford plea for the one charge you didn’t do?

What is an Alford Plea exactly?  An Alford Plea is a plea in criminal court in which the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence, but admits that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution could likely convince a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty.  Upon receiving an Alford plea from a defendant, the court may immediately pronounce the defendant guilty and impose sentence as if the defendant had otherwise been convicted of the crime.  It is basically the same as a guilty plea, and is treated as such by all parties, except-the defendant, who is proclaiming their innocence. 

If you find yourself in a situation like this, or you need council in your court proceedings, call me John Scott at 612-840-8961, or visit our website.

Criminal vehicular injury “CVO” is a Minnesota criminal offense that usually accompanies a DWI charge where someone has gotten hurt in a collision. There are several ways for a Minnesota attorney to defend a CVO charge.

If the BAC of the defendant is not over .08, the State has to prove driver negligence cased the collision. In one case I handled in Hennepin County, I represented a driver who had struck a little boy that had darted into traffic from between two parked cars, directly into my client’s lane of travel. A necessary element that the state had to prove in that case was that the driver was negligent and caused of the collision.

In this case, we hired an accident reconstructionist to provide an opinion that the collision would have occurred even if my client had been completely sober. The opinion was supported by fact witnesses who saw the collision and were able to provide the time, distance and speed facts necessary. In essence, my client was driving within the speed limit and staying within his lane of travel. Keeping a proper lookout and his reaction were not factors in the cause of the collision. The boy had darted into traffic too close to my client’s vehicle for him to react in time to stop.

This was an important step in his defense. We were able to get the felony CVO charges dismissed because the State was unable to prove every element of the offense. My client pled guilty to a misdemeanor DWI. As a Minnesota criminal defense attorney, I believe in making the State prove every element of the crime necessary.

If you have any questions concerning a criminal charge in Minnesota, please call me or visit my website.

John Scott, 612-840-8961

In Minnesota, the legal drinking limit is .08. What that means is that if your blood alcohol is .08 or higher, you are legally intoxicated. I recently had a client with a blood alcohol concentration of .07, and she was charged with DWI.

In a case where the blood alcohol is .07, the state cannot offer the blood test to prove you are driving while intoxicated. The State at trial will rely on the police officer that made the arrest to testify as to illegall driving conduct, such as speed, crossing over fog and center lines, not using a turn signal, and his observations during the stop and the arest – blood shot eyes, slurred speech, unsteady on your feet. The state will also introduce any failed sobriety tests that the officer used.

In most of these cases, a plea bargain is available, but these cases are also very defensible. A colleague of mine taught me to use the arguement that driver arrested for DWI with a .07 BAC, “should get a thank you letter from the State. My client was responsible, and was not driving drunk.”

Whatever defense is suitable in your case, you should talk with a Minnesota DWI attorney prior to pleading guilty in your DWI case. Call Attorney John Scott for a consultation.

In the summer time, it is important that boaters remember that Minnesota’s DWI laws apply to boats as well. If you are operating a boat with a blood alcohol level over .08, you will be charged with BWI (boating while intoxicated).

Since it is usually a DNR agent that makes the stop and arrest, I am often asked if a DNR agent can give a person for a ticket for DWI. The answer is yes. Minnesota laws give authority to its DNR agents to enforce rules that pertain to Minnesota’s waterways, trails, and wildlife. So if a DNR agent is making a legal stop or investigation in the enforcement of those rules, the DNR agent does have authority to make an arrest.

People with a driver’s license restricting them from drinking alcohol (commonly known as the B-card), who drink alcohol on a boat can lose their driver’s license as a result of violating the restriction. This is important to remember because the rules pertaining to stops by DNR agents on the waterways are much more lax than rules applying to policemen on Minnesota roads.

As Minnesotans enjoy the summer on Minnesota’s lakes and waterways, it is important to abide by the DNR’s rules for operating water craft. To review the Minnesota DNR boating rules and regulations, click here.

If you have legal questions concerning a Minnesota BWI or boating incident, please call.

-John Scott

612-840-8961

Operation NightCAP,is a public safety program developed by the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety that consists of twice monthly saturation patrols conducted by multi-jurisdictional law enforcement agencies in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) districts in greater Minnesota schedule their patrols to coincide with community events that have previously experienced impaired driving problems.

The MSP makes the execution of the program very visible to the public, and includes a mobile blood testing vehicle (a/k/a BATmobile), and public safety announcements.

The effect of the program is indeed measurable. For example, officers working Operation NightCAP made 167 arrests through the program in March, 2008, 125 of which were in the Twin Cities’ counties.

If you have a question concerning your DWI arrest, call our office to speak with an attorney today to discuss your case.

-John Scott, 612-840-8961

Minnesota drivers with multiple DWI offenses may have to drive vehicles with special plates. These special plates are commonly known as whiskey plates. In Minnesota, the vehicle plates start with a ”W” or another letter at the end of the alphabet. The readily identified letters indicate to police officers that the owner of the vehicle has multiple DWI charges on his or her driving record.

For a good article describing Whiskey Plates from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, click here.

If you drive a vehicle with whiskey plates, chances are very good that you will be stopped at some point by a police officer. There are special exceptions to the usual search and seizure rules for vehicles that display Whiskey Plates.

If you have a question concerning a DWI charge or plate impoundment, please call Attorney John Scott at 612-840-8961.

Persons accused of a crime in Minnesota have to be aware that if the crime was committed with, or while using, a motor vehicle, their drivers’ license may be suspended if they plead guilty. The most common offenses that result in suspension of drivers’ license include fleeing from a police officer, using a vehicle in drug manufacturing or drug selling, and of course, DUI and DWI offenses.

More than one Minnesota defendant has been surprised following entry of a guilty plea when the Department of Public Safety sends a notice of suspension. Once a plea is entered, all the Commissioner of Public Safety has to do is show that a plea was entered to the offense. So really, there is no recourse once a guilty plea is entered.

Be sure that the Minnesota criminal defense attorney you hire knows what offenses will result in a suspension of your license if you plead guilty. Most of the offenses that result in a suspension or revocation of a Minnesota Driver’s license are listed within Minnesota Statute Chapter 171, and the DWI statutes. The length of the license suspension varies. You should ask your Minnesota criminal defense attorney if what you are pleading guilty to will result in a suspension of your Minnesota drivers’ license before admitting guilt.

Call me today for a free consultation if you have questions concerning pending criminal charges in Minnesota.

-John Scott, 612-840-8961

This morning I listened to a radio show interview this morning with Lieutenant Mark Peterson of the Minnesota State Highway Patrol (MSP). With the holiday weekend, the MSP and local agencies are planning on putting more officers into duty, and having those officers aggressively making traffic stops, enforcing our DWI laws.

DWI laws exist for public safety reasons. But even as the officers make DUI stops and arrests, it is important that the individual constitutional rights are not violated.

Over the holiday weekend, persons arrested and put into custody do not have to wait until Courts open Tuesday to get out of jail. A good criminal defense attorney can arrange to have bail or bond set, and can get an order from a judge permitting release from jail.

If you have questions concerning getting out of jail before court is open on Tuesday, call a Minnesota DWI attorney.

-John Scott, 612-840-8961.

Minnesota DWI lawyers have found a way to challenge their client’s DUI charges: requesting that the state produce the source codes for the Intoxilizer computers that produce the results of the breath BAC tests.

But the state can’t produce the codes. The State of Minnesota contractually cannot give them to defense attorneys because of the contract the state signed with the manufacturer of the machines. While some DUI cases have been dismissed as a result, a recent Court holding addressed this issue.

The Court of Appeals issued an order in the case of State v. Olcott, Court file A06-2340, on April 15, 2008 holding that Defendants have to make a showing that the source codes negate the guilt or reduce the culpability of the DWI charge. With that in mind, attorneys will be looking for a software engineer with the qualifications to testify that variances within the source codes could result in a different reading. I see it being more applicable to .08, .09, .10 cases, as opposed to the sloppy drunk .19 readings.

Using common sense, I am sure programmers and software engineers would agree that the variance in the software would be insufficient to show that the source codes, and the mathematical rounding would not negate the guilt of a person being charged with a .22 BAC. See another post at:  http://www.robteel.com/2007/08/10/duis-and-breathalyser-source-code/. Also, don’t forget that you have the right to get your own BAC test if you don’t agree with the State’s.

From a DWI lawyer’s perspective, in the DUI case a person wanting to challenge BAC test by getting the source codes would need a programmer or software engineer to testify why they might be inaccurate, and a toxicologist to testify that based on the person’s consumption, they should not have had that high of a reading.

If you have a question concerning a Minnesota DWI, please call.

-John Scott, 612-840-8961

A Minnesota DWI charge will get your driver’s license suspended if your BAC is over 0.08. In order to challenge the license suspension, you must file an Implied Consent Petition with the Court within 30 days that you receive the Notice of Suspension.

The Implied Consent case is basically a civil lawsuit against the Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety alleging that your suspension is wrong. The basis of such a challenge can include that the police officer did not have probable cause to stop you or to arrest you, that the BAC test is unreliable, that the police office did not let you talk to an attorney after the arrest and before you took the test, or any violation of constitutional rights. If you have been arrested for a Minnesota DWI, talk to a criminal defense attorney if you believe there are issues that the police did wrong during the DWI arrest.

The issues that are raised in an Implied Consent case are usually raised in your criminal defense case as well. The issues are tried to a judge. If you prevail in your criminal case without challenging the Implied Consent case, you will still have an Implied Consent entry on your driver’s record. Insurance Companies, police officers, and anyone looking at your driving record will know that you were arrested for DWI even if there is no criminal conviction.

For clients of the public defender, you need to be aware that the public defender will not represent you in the Implied Consent case.

If you have questions concerning a DWI arrest, please call for a free initial consultation.

-John Scott, 612-840-8961