Arizona Dui Defense

What is an Arizona Reckless Driving Charges?

Reckless driving is one of the more serious misdemeanor offenses in Arizona. The crime can be either a class 1 or class 2 misdemeanor. When charged as a first time offense, as a class two misdemeanor, the statute has a maximum penalty of four months in jail and $750.00 fine. Moreover, there are some additional consequences to a person's driver's license. Reckless Driving is considered a serious moving violation and places 8 points on a person's driver's license. This in turn, requires the person to complete Traffic Survival School.
The crime of Reckless Driving is codified in section 28-693 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. The statute states:
A. A person who drives a vehicle in reckless disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.
B. A person convicted of reckless driving is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.
C. In addition, the judge may require the surrender to a police officer of any driver license of the convicted person, shall report the conviction to the department and may order the driving privileges of the person to be suspended for a period of not more than ninety days. On receipt of the abstract of conviction and order, the department shall suspend the driving privilege of the person for the period of time ordered by the judge

When does a person geta hearing regarding and Lisense suspensions

In the context of a DUI case, there are two common scenarios when a motorist will receive an order of suspension for their driver's license:
After they refuse to take a chemical test pursuant to A.R.S. 28-1321(D)(2); and
After a test result of .08 or greater pursuant to A.R.S. 28-1385(A).
The Motor Vehicle Division of the Department of Transportation permits a person a hearing prior to the suspension. The hearing request can be made by mail, facsimile or email. The request for the hearing must be received by the department within 15 days after the notice. A timely request stays the suspension until at least the time of the hearing.
The hearing is a civil proceeding. The burden of proof for the government is only a preponderance of evidence, as opposed to the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt. The Arizona Rules of Evidence do not apply to the hearing. For example "reliable hearsay" evidence is admissible during the hearing.

Drivers operating a vehicle with a commercial driver’s license (CDL) have different standards than other drivers. The reason is because of the safety issues associated with operating larger vehicles such as trucks, tractor-trailers and buses.
The Arizona DUI laws are much more restrictive for people with commercial drivers licenses (CDL). While most Arizona drivers will be in violation of the law if their blood alcohol concentration is .08 or greater, commercial driver have a much tougher standard. For drivers with a CDL, the legal limit is merely a blood alcohol concentration of .04 or greater. Section 28-1381(A)(4) of the Arizona Revised Statutes provides:
It is unlawful for a person to drive or be in actual physical control of a vehicle in this state under any of the following circumstances:
If the vehicle is a commercial motor vehicle that requires a person to obtain a commercial driver license as defined in section 28-3001 and the person has an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or more.
Moreover, a commercial driver may also face a disqualification of their license. Thus, a commercial driver’s livelihood may be put at risk.

I see the following scenario commonly in my practice. My client is responsible for causing a low impact accident. No one from either automobile was injured. However my client had consumed alcohol, and a blood test confirmed he was over Arizona's legal limit of .08. What charges may he be facing?
Obviously he is facing a misdemeanor DUI. And more troubling, he may also be facing an Endangerment charge. Under section 13-1201 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, a person commits Endangerment by:
Recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury.
Endangerment involving a substantial risk of imminent death is a class 6 felony. In all other cases, it is a class 1 misdemeanor.
Moreover, since a car was involved (a dangerous instrument under Arizona law) my client may be facing a mandatory prison term. This can happen if it is proven that he placed the other driver in a substantial risk of imminent death. While most low impact accidents do not expose a person to such a risk, prosecutors often charge these cases with the attitude of "just leave the decision to the jury". Meanwhile the client has now been exposed to a serious risk, of a long period of prison, because the State has not taken the time to properly and correctly evaluate the case. These cases cannot be taken lightly. Every effort must be made to show the true nature of the impact. That is, there was no risk of "imminent death." This may require the use of both an accident reconstructionist and bio-mechanical engineer. In any event, these types of cases must be proactively handled as soon as possible.

The are several types of DUI offenses in Arizona. An extreme DUI is based on the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of the person accused of DUI. Specifically, if the person has a BAC above a .150 they will be charged with extreme DUI under § 28-1382 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.
Some of the penalties for being convicted of an Extreme DUI charge include:
Incarceration (a term of jail)
Fines
Installation of an Ignition Interlock Device
Driver License Suspension
Substance Abuse Screening and any recommended treatment
The minimum jail term has been 30 days with up to 20 days suspended if the person complied with the recommended treatment resulting from the mandatory drug and alcohol screening. Simply out, the judge could reduce your sentence to 10 days. However, the Arizona Extreme DUI laws are changing in the near future. The legislature has amened the extreme DUI statute removing the ability of judges to do the following:

Luige del Puerto of the Arizona Capital Times is reporting that a proposed DUI Bill recently vetoed by Governor Janet Napolitano may have new life. The Arizona Capital times article states:
Lawmakers said they have found a way to revive a vetoed drinking-and-driving bill, minus the provision that prompted its rejection by the governor. The provisions of H2395 will be offered as a floor amendment to a House measure that deals with liquor licensing, lawmakers said. H2395 was vetoed by Gov. Janet Napolitano April 29.
This time, however, it doesn't include a provision that called for a six-month reduction of the interlock penalty for first-time offenders who met certain conditions. Napolitano has said the penalty reduction was the reason for her veto.

Kim Smith of the Arizona Daily Star has reported that a Tucson City Court judge has ruled prosecutors cannot use the results of breath tests administered to 49 people scheduled to be tried before him on DUI charges. Her article states:
If other judges agree with Judge Thomas Berning, prosecutors could find it hard to prosecute thousands of other DUI cases locally and statewide. "I'm optimistic the other judges will agree with Judge Berning. It's a well-written decision," said defense attorney Joe St. Louis. "This could be really big."
Last year, law-enforcement officers across Arizona began administering breath tests to suspected drunken drivers using a new machine called the Intoxilyzer 8000, St. Louis said. Almost immediately, defense experts realized the machines were sometimes providing "weird" or inexplicable results, St. Louis said.
In order to figure out what was going on, the experts said they needed to see the machines' "source card" or software. The software would also enable the experts to determine whether the results were accurate and reliable, St. Louis said.

The "Super" Extreme DUI is a relatively new creation by the Arizona State Legislature. The language of the statute does not actully refer to the word "super." Most attorneys have simply adopted this name because of the harsh "super" jail sentence that can result from a conviction of this law.
To be convicted of this law a person must be proven to have been driving and have a blood alcohol concentration of .200 or above. The resulting jail term, which is only one of several penalties, is a minimum of 45 days. The good news regarding this statute is there are several cases currently challanging the legality of the statute

Arizona law enforcement often uses breath-testing devices to determine the blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) of a person suspected of DUI. The Intoxilyzer 8000 is commonly used in Maricopa County. When a person is suspected of DUI, he is generally requested to blow twice into an Intoxilyzer; this is referred to as “duplicate breath testing.”
The Department of Public Safety (DPS) has issued regulations for duplicate breath testing, which it defines as “two consecutive breath tests that immediately follow a deprivation period, agree within 0.020…of each other...”
In addition, the Department of Public Safety defines a deprivation period as “at least a 15-minute period immediately prior to a duplicate breath test during which period the subject has not ingested any alcoholic beverage or other fluids, eaten, vomited, smoked or placed any foreign object in the mouth.” Breath-testing experts have stated that the deprivation period is critical to the breath-testing process. (See Kurt Dubowski, “Quality Assurance in Breath-Alcohol Analysis,” Journal of Analytical Toxicology, Vol. 18, October 1994.)

It is commonly believed that “drunk driving” is the reason for a DUI charge. However, DUI stands for “driving under the influence” of alcohol or drugs. Under Arizona law, you do not have to be “drunk” to be convicted of DUI. Rather, the law requires only that your driving be impaired by alcohol; Arizona law provides that you cannot drive if your ability to do so is impaired to any degree.
When you are arrested for DUI, you generally receive two types of charges. The first alleges that you were driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs to at least “the slightest degree.” Thus, to violate the statute, you do not have to be falling-down drunk. Rather, a slight impairment of your ability to drive, due to alcohol, violates the law.
The second type of charge you receive when arrested for DUI relates to your blood-alcohol concentration (BAC). For a basic DUI allegation, you’re charged with having a BAC greater than .08 percent within two hours of driving. If your BAC is greater than .150, you may receive an additional charge of Extreme DUI (or if above .200 a "super-extreme DUI.") These are sometimes referred to as “per se” charges, meaning that if the State can prove your BAC is above a certain limit, that alone proves a violation of the DUI statute.
Many “per se” violations are defended on the grounds that the means used to determine one’s BAC have a large range of accuracy. That is, even if the device used to test your breath or blood was working perfectly, your BAC may actually be lower than indicated. The State concedes that this range of accuracy exists. However, the real debate is over the extent of this range.

Posted by: Adnan