Beating the Rap . . . But Taking the Revocation
Myra Lynne Combs beat her DWI charges in court. The trial court held that the officer who stopped her didn’t have a lawful reason to do so. So the trial […]
January 21, 2015
What to Do with the Impaired Drivers We’ve Stopped—And the Ones We Haven’t
DWI arrests in North Carolina’s capital city are on the rise. The Wake County district attorney’s office expects to prosecute around 7,000 DWI cases this fiscal year—2,000 more than it […]
January 7, 2015
Failing to advise a defendant of his implied consent rights requires suppression of the test results . . . except when it doesn’t
In opinions spanning four decades, North Carolina’s appellate courts have suppressed chemical analysis results in impaired driving cases based on statutory violations related to their administration. When the violation consists […]
December 17, 2014
DWLR + DWI Does Not (Automatically) Equal a Grossly Aggravating Factor
Author’s note: The law was amended in 2015 to alter this analysis. The amendments are discussed here. Grossly aggravating factors matter in DWI sentencing. And there’s one factor that seems […]
December 11, 2014
Go Ahead, Test Me
Most people stopped on suspicion of impaired driving would rather avoid the trip to the police station. Some suspects attempt to dispel officers’ suspicions by answering questions about whether they have been […]
November 19, 2014
Keeping a Good Thing Going: New Book Available on Impaired Driving Laws
The School of Government has been publishing reference books on motor vehicle law since 1947. The twelfth iteration of a book on motor vehicle law and the law of impaired […]
November 6, 2014
Hospitalization of DWI Suspect Does Not Create Per Se Exigency Justifying Warrantless Blood Draw
The Chatham County sheriff’s deputy who arrested Ronald McCrary in Siler City for impaired driving at 7:34 p.m. on December 28, 2010 decided that if McCrary was taken to the […]
October 30, 2014
Implied Consent Laws Can’t Provide End-Run around McNeely
The United States Supreme Court held in Missouri v. McNeely, 133 S. Ct. 1552 (2013), that the natural dissipation of alcohol in the bloodstream does not constitute an exigency in […]
September 30, 2014
A Young Man with a Long History of Driving While Impaired
Rabah Samara, the young man who took the wheel of the Cadillac after it crashed into and killed sports reporter Stephen Gates as he was changing a tire on I-40 in […]
September 18, 2014
You Get What You Get and You Don’t Throw a Fit
My daughter is awfully fond of this expression (when applied to one of her brothers, of course). Turns out it also is apropos for this week’s court of appeals decision […]
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