My client was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and DUI. I had all of the charges dismissed on October 31, 2013, based upon my motion to rescind the Statutory Summary Suspension.
Here are the facts of the case based upon the police reports:
My Client struck a large trash container in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Villa Park, (DuPage County). As he was leaving, the manager of the apartment complex saw him, took down his license plate number and called the police.
The police were able to locate my client at his home (based upon the license plate). He was standing in his driveway with his vehicle. The vehicle had damage and had a green paint color (color of the dumpster) on the front of the minivan. As the police officer walked up, he saw open alcohol in the minivan, (he was also charged with open alcohol). He arrested my client for leaving the scene of an accident, placed him in handcuffs and took him to the police station.
At the police station, they had him perform the DUI field sobriety tests, (HGN, Walk and Turn and One Leg Stand). He failed all of them. My client then submitted to a breath test where he was over the legal limit. The police officer then read my client his Miranda Warning, (you have the right to remain silent, etc). The officer should have read him his Miranda Warning before he was put into handcuffs and transported to the police station.
When I received the police reports and saw that my client was not read his Miranda Warning until after he did all of the DUI tests, even though he was arrested prior to his DUI tests. I filed a Motion to Rescind the Statutory Summary Suspension in order to obtain the police officer’s sworn testimony and to confirm what was contained in the police reports.
On the day of the hearing after I brought this to the attention of the prosecutor, the prosecutor agreed to dismiss ALL of the charges. The prosecutor knew that due to the fact that the Miranda Warnings were not given at the proper time the case would not withstand going forward.
If the prosecutor had not dismissed all of the charges at that time, I would of had all of them dismissed by the judge because of the police officer’s mistake.
