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Editor: Will Hanlon & Charlie Lambert
Profession: Tampa Defense Attorneys

Category: Recent Wins

State v. O, Judge: James Dominguez; Date: March 12, 2007

FACTS: The client (defendant) was stopped at the light on highway 41 north and Florida Avenue. A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputy stopped at the light behind our client. According to the deputy the light cycled through twice before she activated her overhead lights and approached the defendant's vehicle. The deputy claimed that the defendant was incoherent, and unaware of her surroundings when she made contact with her at the driver's side door. At that point the stopping deputy called a special DUI enforcement deputy who conducted a DUI investigation. The second deputy asked the defendant to perform field sobriety tests, and claimed she had failed the tests. Much of what the deputy reported seemed to be confirmed by the defendant's breath result (the breath result was .146 and .129).

DEFENSE: After a number of attempts to negotiate with the State failed, we filed a motion to suppress the stop of the defendant's car. The State felt there was a safety concern that warranted the deputy stopping our client to determine the situation. We felt the deputy stopped our client's vehicle prematurely, and without reasonable suspicion.

RESULT: The State realized there were problems opposing our motion which led to a reduction of the charge to reckless driving for the client.