Q: If I had To do the dui 9 step heel-toe test and I failed how do the officers know Im dui or if I have bad balance
Just curious because no one is perfect and no one has perfect balance, and for someone who is injured or has had a injury and just doesn’t do good them they get arrested for nothing?
A: The field sobriety tests should not be able to individually prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person is intoxicated, because other explanations can be reasonably posited for all of the behaviors the tests ascribe to intoxication. And that is normally how a defense attorney cross examines the arresting officer on the field tests. In their totality, however, along with other indicia of intoxication (e.g. smell of alcohol, erratic driving, admissions, time/location of the stop, breathalyzer reading, etc.), the Prosecutor uses the tests to add to the weight of the People’s case. Also, not all tests are approved by the National Traffic Safety Advisory Board, which goes potentially to admissibility and the weight that the evidence should be given by the finder-of-fact. You should speak with an attorney about the best defense to the specific facts of your DWI scenario. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.
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