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Help from some lawyers?

  • I know there are a lot of lawyers on here, so I was wondering if I could get some help by chance. I was out in E.L. this past week and had some drinks with my friends, and stopped drinking at midnight. Drank water the rest of the night, closed the bar with my friends, ate some Pancheros, and then grabbed my car to drive us home. Felt fine and didn't even really think I was close to being impaired. Long story short, I went through some construction on Albert on my way out of town, and got pulled over. Probably about 2:30am. Went through all the tests with the cop, did well with all of them, but the cop had me blow and I blew a 0.09. He threw on the bracelets, charged me with operating while intoxicated and I got to hang out in the PD for the night.

    So basically I'm wondering what the heck will happen now. I'm 25, blew a 0.09, didn't get in any accidents or anything, and was cooperative. This is also my first offense. The cop said these things will be in my favor and mentioned something about me most likely pleaing down to impairment, but I wanted to see if you all had any insight as to what I'll do next. I've gotta go in to the court and do some kind of arraignment? Should I go with the court appointed attorney or hire my own? What happens in these proceedings? What are typical punishments? Any kind of help for a fellow Spartan who made a mistake (0.01 too much of a mistake, but a mistake nonetheless) would be fantastic. Thanks.

    Spartans12

  • Spartans12 said...

    I know there are a lot of lawyers on here, so I was wondering if I could get some help by chance. I was out in E.L. this past week and had some drinks with my friends, and stopped drinking at midnight. Drank water the rest of the night, closed the bar with my friends, ate some Pancheros, and then grabbed my car to drive us home. Felt fine and didn't even really think I was close to being impaired. Long story short, I went through some construction on Albert on my way out of town, and got pulled over. Probably about 2:30am. Went through all the tests with the cop, did well with all of them, but the cop had me blow and I blew a 0.09. He threw on the bracelets, charged me with operating while intoxicated and I got to hang out in the PD for the night.

    So basically I'm wondering what the heck will happen now. I'm 25, blew a 0.09, didn't get in any accidents or anything, and was cooperative. This is also my first offense. The cop said these things will be in my favor and mentioned something about me most likely pleaing down to impairment, but I wanted to see if you all had any insight as to what I'll do next. I've gotta go in to the court and do some kind of arraignment? Should I go with the court appointed attorney or hire my own? What happens in these proceedings? What are typical punishments? Any kind of help for a fellow Spartan who made a mistake (0.01 too much of a mistake, but a mistake nonetheless) would be fantastic. Thanks.

    Doesn't MSU have free lawyers? Not for nothing, maybe you should be contacting them.

    Rarely IMHO does hiring your own attorney put you at an advantage over a court-appointed attorney.

    SpartanInNH

  • SpartanInNH said...

    Doesn't MSU have free lawyers? Not for nothing, maybe you should be contacting them.

    Rarely IMHO does hiring your own attorney put you at an advantage over a court-appointed attorney.

    better call saul...saul goodman

    SpartanHoops

  • If you are a MSU student, call student legal services. They are hired by attorneys by ASMSU for just this purpose.

    sgrazz1605

  • Spartans12 said...

    I know there are a lot of lawyers on here, so I was wondering if I could get some help by chance. I was out in E.L. this past week and had some drinks with my friends, and stopped drinking at midnight. Drank water the rest of the night, closed the bar with my friends, ate some Pancheros, and then grabbed my car to drive us home. Felt fine and didn't even really think I was close to being impaired. Long story short, I went through some construction on Albert on my way out of town, and got pulled over. Probably about 2:30am. Went through all the tests with the cop, did well with all of them, but the cop had me blow and I blew a 0.09. He threw on the bracelets, charged me with operating while intoxicated and I got to hang out in the PD for the night.

    So basically I'm wondering what the heck will happen now. I'm 25, blew a 0.09, didn't get in any accidents or anything, and was cooperative. This is also my first offense. The cop said these things will be in my favor and mentioned something about me most likely pleaing down to impairment, but I wanted to see if you all had any insight as to what I'll do next. I've gotta go in to the court and do some kind of arraignment? Should I go with the court appointed attorney or hire my own? What happens in these proceedings? What are typical punishments? Any kind of help for a fellow Spartan who made a mistake (0.01 too much of a mistake, but a mistake nonetheless) would be fantastic. Thanks.

    "I was out in E.L. this past week and had some drinks with my friends, and stopped drinking at midnight"

    Yeah, I knew how this story was going to end when I read that. The city of East Lansing has gotta have one of the highest enforcement rates for OWI in Michigan.

    Get a court-appointed if you're tight on cash. Stacia Buchanan is great if you can get her, but all of them in EL are good. If you're an MSU student still (probably not), ASMSU provides free legal counsel.

    Luckily for you, rarely do any of the EL judges sentence jail, especially for first offenders. It just doesn't happen. Even Judge Jordan (probably the worst judge you could get at 54B as far as punishment goes) won't throw you in jail. He will impound the car though so that'll suck.

    Plead not guilty and get a lawyer. Even getting it knocked down to impaired driving (could negotiate that yourself actually) is going to cost you big time in the way of SOS driver responsibility fees, license suspension, insurance, fines, etc. I'm not joking when I say that a first offense conviction of impaired driving can cost you about $10,000 by the time it's all said and done.

    Best bet is to hire an attorney and hope he can exploit something regarding the breath test and bring reliability into question. Being a .09, you're right on that cusp and any irregularity with regard to testing can call the result into question. Not likely going to get the charges dismissed, but the prosecutor will be more willing to deal with you if you can prove that you may have a good case at trial. And EL juries are VERY liberal (although not so much when it comes to OWI) and prosecutors hate going in front of them. Get it knocked down to a reckless or careless driving and you'll be much better off (non-alcohol offense will help insurance).

    This post was edited by JMSparty08 on 8/12/2012 at 3:45 PM

    "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." - Mark Dantonio.

    JMSparty08 ●

  • SpartanInNH said...

    Doesn't MSU have free lawyers? Not for nothing, maybe you should be contacting them.

    Rarely IMHO does hiring your own attorney put you at an advantage over a court-appointed attorney.

    erCaveat Emptor

    At 25 years of age wouldn't want that on my record so I would hire the most experieced Lawyer I could possibly afford. You don't want to lose this one.

    This post was edited by rob on 8/12/2012 at 3:50 PM

    "I think the world is run by C students" Al Mcguire

    rob ●

  • rob said...

    erCaveat Emptor

    At 25 years of age wouldn't want that on my record so I would hire the most experieced Lawyer I could possibly afford. You don't want to lose this one.

    Good point. Keep in mind that 3 alcohol related traffic convictions in a lifetime in MI will get you a felony. At 25, you're starting early. 2 more slip ups and you'd be looking at 5 years in prison. Not even to mention future job opportunities.

    This post has been edited 3 times, most recently by JMSparty08 on 8/12/2012 at 3:54 PM

    "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." - Mark Dantonio.

    JMSparty08 ●

  • If you hadn't had a drink for 2.5 hours, you must have been pretty drunk at one point in the night. Hire a lawyer, and for about $5k you can probably get out of it entirely. It's low enough where you can definitely exploit a breathalyzer characteristic.

    George Jetson

  • George Jetson said...

    If you hadn't had a drink for 2.5 hours, you must have been pretty drunk at one point in the night. Hire a lawyer, and for about $5k you can probably get out of it entirely. It's low enough where you can definitely exploit a breathalyzer characteristic.

    During my stint in the drunk tank at MSU i was with a dude who was 25 and got caught pissing outside of Dublin Square. Long story short, after 8 hours they let you blow again to see if you can blow 0's and leave. They call the guys name and he goes out there and blows. He comes back to the cell and I ask him "what happened, what did you blow"? He says ".14, they're making me stay here till 3pm" lol I ask "how did you blow a .14, you've been here 8 hours" he says "hell, I was drinking for 8+ hours before I got in here" lol

    Jack Passion

  • Spartans12 said...

    I know there are a lot of lawyers on here, so I was wondering if I could get some help by chance. I was out in E.L. this past week and had some drinks with my friends, and stopped drinking at midnight. Drank water the rest of the night, closed the bar with my friends, ate some Pancheros, and then grabbed my car to drive us home. Felt fine and didn't even really think I was close to being impaired. Long story short, I went through some construction on Albert on my way out of town, and got pulled over. Probably about 2:30am. Went through all the tests with the cop, did well with all of them, but the cop had me blow and I blew a 0.09. He threw on the bracelets, charged me with operating while intoxicated and I got to hang out in the PD for the night.

    So basically I'm wondering what the heck will happen now. I'm 25, blew a 0.09, didn't get in any accidents or anything, and was cooperative. This is also my first offense. The cop said these things will be in my favor and mentioned something about me most likely pleaing down to impairment, but I wanted to see if you all had any insight as to what I'll do next. I've gotta go in to the court and do some kind of arraignment? Should I go with the court appointed attorney or hire my own? What happens in these proceedings? What are typical punishments? Any kind of help for a fellow Spartan who made a mistake (0.01 too much of a mistake, but a mistake nonetheless) would be fantastic. Thanks.

    (15 year old advice) I got a lawyer, basically out of fear that doing it any other way would offend (I don't know if that's true). Plead innocent, that forces a trial, and the prosecutor to work out a deal. Then you plea guilty to the lesser charge and reduced sentence. It cost me about 10 minutes in front of a judge, a few bucks and some time in a classroom (which actually was educational).

    I actually came out of the deal with a slight lack of respect for the process. I wanted to be all honorable and honest and own up. But, that would have been very bad for my future. Maybe in the end, that's how the process should work.

    Bottom line, the police said the same thing to me, and they were dead on. They know the situation and circumstance, and wouldn't have given you that advice if they weren't confident.

    signature image

    SeeGreen ●

  • Impairment still sucks. The advantages over Intoxicated or whatever the higher one is no Suspended license 4 pts vs 7, 500X2 years responsibility fee over 1000x2years. You will still get a restricted license, and a misdemeanor on your record.

    Also you will not be able to get a CCW for 3 years (if you wanted to get one, I just found this out the other day) and butt raped by the insurance companies. I am not sure how EL judges treat offenders, but I had to take breathalyzers about 6 times a week for over a year as part of my probation along with 3 weeks in jail for a First offense. But that is the crazy broad in W. Bloomfield. It sucks because you are going to have to tell employers about it, I am guessing it cost me about 10K in real money and a lot more in lost income.

    The biggest thing is make sure you do not make the same mistake again. It gets worse and worse. Also if you want to show the judge something, go to some AA meetings and get a sheet signed, also try and find out if they require drug and alcohol counseling as part of the sentence, if so start that before everything. It will look good when sentenced.

    signature image signature image

    DMBSparty ●

  • DMBSparty said...

    Impairment still sucks. The advantages over Intoxicated or whatever the higher one is no Suspended license 4 pts vs 7, 500X2 years responsibility fee over 1000x2years. You will still get a restricted license, and a misdemeanor on your record.

    Also you will not be able to get a CCW for 3 years (if you wanted to get one, I just found this out the other day) and butt raped by the insurance companies. I am not sure how EL judges treat offenders, but I had to take breathalyzers about 6 times a week for over a year as part of my probation along with 3 weeks in jail for a First offense. But that is the crazy broad in W. Bloomfield. It sucks because you are going to have to tell employers about it, I am guessing it cost me about 10K in real money and a lot more in lost income.

    The biggest thing is make sure you do not make the same mistake again. It gets worse and worse. Also if you want to show the judge something, go to some AA meetings and get a sheet signed, also try and find out if they require drug and alcohol counseling as part of the sentence, if so start that before everything. It will look good when sentenced.

    Oh and the Lawyer was the worse thing I have ever spent money on. He did absolutely nothing. I would have been better off using a court appointed attorney and using the money for the fines and court costs. Get the free MSU Lawyer if you can or a court appointed because you are going to need that money for costs.

    signature image signature image

    DMBSparty ●

  • Jack Passion said...

    During my stint in the drunk tank at MSU i was with a dude who was 25 and got caught pissing outside of Dublin Square. Long story short, after 8 hours they let you blow again to see if you can blow 0's and leave. They call the guys name and he goes out there and blows. He comes back to the cell and I ask him "what happened, what did you blow"? He says ".14, they're making me stay here till 3pm" lol I ask "how did you blow a .14, you've been here 8 hours" he says "hell, I was drinking for 8+ hours before I got in here" lol

    hahahaha same thing happened to me last year (MIP charge). At 8 AM when I felt fine and had been in for 8 hours, I blew a .10 lol sucked at the time but I was out by one

    Sparty417

  • Sparty417 said...

    hahahaha same thing happened to me last year (MIP charge). At 8 AM when I felt fine and had been in for 8 hours, I blew a .10 lol sucked at the time but I was out by one

    I was in there chugging water all night hoping I'd blow 0. I was pretty confident I was going to but ended up blowing a .039 and had to stay an extra hour, it ended up being 2 because I couldn't get a hold of anyone on that damn phone they have in the cell.

    Jack Passion

  • SeeGreen said...

    Bottom line, the police said the same thing to me, and they were dead on. They know the situation and circumstance, and wouldn't have given you that advice if they weren't confident.

    Yeah and the police are not on your side. They want you to plead down and get a conviction. You really think they would tell you if they didn't abide by the MSP manual regarding breath tests? They were dead on because you played their game the way they wanted. So yeah, the outcome was the way they said it would be.

    OP, if you want a good attorney that will fight, Mike Nichols is top north. Annoyed the hell out of the prosecutors in Ingham county when I interned at the prosecutors office, but that is because he's good.

    "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." - Mark Dantonio.

    JMSparty08 ●

  • JMSparty08 said...

    Yeah and the police are not on your side. They want you to plead down and get a conviction. You really think they would tell you if they didn't abide by the MSP manual regarding breath tests? They were dead on because you played their game the way they wanted. So yeah, the outcome was the way they said it would be.

    OP, if you want a good attorney that will fight, Mike Nichols is top north. Annoyed the hell out of the prosecutors in Ingham county when I interned at the prosecutors office, but that is because he's good.

    Time, place, condition. I wouldn't say they were "on my side", but it would take a lot of convincing for me to think that they didn't recognize that on a scale of 1 to 10 (bad break to complete dick-head), I was on the 1 side of the scale. I didn't play their game. I hired an attorney. After the fact, they were dead on, and I spent an extra $400 bucks.

    signature image

    SeeGreen ●

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