There would need to be a very good legal or factual issue because dismissal is extremely rare. It would usually be that there was an issue with the officer or that the person was using the vehicle as a shelter so the shelter rule defense applied.
There might even be an issue with the lab or there might be a factual issue concerning the identity of the driver. Even when there are issues with the officers or issues with the identity of the driver or issues with the shelter rule defense, these are cases where the prosecutors have often decided to just take the person to trial rather than deciding to dismiss the case.
Most of the dismissals that I am able to arrange for ahead of time either have to do with the shelter rule defense or an issue called due diligence. This basically means that years have passed since the arrest and the prosecutor did not take the proper steps in assuring that the person is brought to trial so the person had moved on with their lives.
The prosecutor would have a duty to take steps to find the person and bring them to court, rather than simply issuing a warrant to say they would find them at some point and then at some point they would get picked up. There would be certain exceptions to this due diligence argument, especially if the person had run away from their charges.
Due diligence and shelter rule issues seem to be the most prevalent when I am able to get the case dismissed because I can usually see those issues ahead of time when talking to people during the free consultation.
Do Most Clients Come In Misunderstanding What A Trial Actually Consists Of?
Most people only know about trials based on what they have seen on T.V, although T.V is not that far off from reality. A DUI trial in Arizona would be a jury trial depending on which court the person was in and how much time the person might be facing. There might be anywhere from 6 jurors who decide whether the prosecutor had proved their case beyond the reasonable doubt on the charged offences, all the way up to, maybe 15 jurors.
It would also be possible if both the prosecutor and the defense agreed, as well as the client, to allow a judge to decide whether the prosecutor has proved their case beyond reasonable doubt.
The person would have a constitutional right to a jury trial in a DUI case, although that could be left to the judge based on the agreement of all parties. In some ways, a trial would be somewhat boring for a defendant because they would usually be sitting there for anywhere from 1 day to maybe about a week, and while they would have a constitutional right to testify, they would sometimes have been advised by their counsel that it might not be in their best interest to do so.
It would ultimately be their decision regarding whether or not they wanted to actually testify, although in the meantime they would basically have to just sit at the table for around 8 hours a day and listen to all of the evidence against them.
I could imagine this would be stressful but it would probably also be boring in some ways because the person would really not have to do much of anything except sit there and listen to the evidence, and then hope the end result is in their favor.
Do Police Officers Ever Not Show Up For The Trial?
When a case goes to trial, the prosecutor would have to prove their case beyond any reasonable doubts to leave the jury firmly convinced in the defendant’s guilt. Their biggest piece of evidence in a DUI case would usually be the officer who performed the traffic stop. There might even be an additional officer who came to the scene in order to take over the DUI investigation.
The defendant would have a constitutional right to confront and cross examine the evidence and the witnesses against them. If for some reason the officer did not show up, then the defendant would be denied that ability to confront and cross examine the witnesses against them.
In this situation there would be no one else who could bring in the testimony or information from those absent witnesses, because that would be considered as hearsay. The case might end up getting dismissed if there was not sufficient evidence to provide to the jury for them to determine whether or not the defendant was guilty.
It would be extremely rare for police officers to not show up. It has probably been about 8 years since I had to handle a trial where the police officer did not show up. Some things might get lost in translation, but it is actually more common for something to literally happen to the police officer.
The police officer might be hospitalized because they had been injured on the job or in their personal lives, they might be deceased or they might have gotten themselves attested because they were suspected of crimes or they might even be charged with offences so they did not show up at the court.
It would be possible for the police officer to not show up, but that would not be a reason I would recommend someone to trial and to just cross their fingers and hope that something happened to the officer. The client would not have to explain themselves as long as they understood the risks involved in going to the trial.
Can Counseling Or Treatment Affect The Outcome Of The Case?
It would absolutely help with plea negotiations, although it would just not be something that would come out at trial in front of a jury.
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