Posted on 05/23/2009 4:59:50 PM PDT by Dallas59
A word of caution before you head out for the long Memorial Day weekend: It's also No-Refusal Weekend. Which means? Well, if Dallas police pull suspect you're drinking and driving, you'll be stuck with a butterfly needle attached to a vacuum-packed container, and two vials' worth of your blood will taken and tested. And, no, you can't refuse the test; hence the name, as discussed in our cover story on the very subject last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.dallasobserver.com ...
Ultimately its up to the Judge for how long you lose your driving privileges if at all
In Nevada, breath test or blood. You can’t refuse.
FMCDH(BITS)
It appears they go before a judge and get a warrant to take your blood. And they will use force to get it.
No, you CAN refuse by the 4th amendment.
Now you might not like what happens if you do (automatic license suspension), but you CAN refuse.
If you refuse and they illegally take your blood, they should be sued for all they are worth.
I may go driving around Dallas NOT drunk and see if I get an offer I CAN refuse.
Quick, everyone start pretending to be a Jehovah’s Witness and decline due to religion.
I find that hard to believe, though I don't know the law there.
AFAIK if you refuse it's automatic suspension and a court date. No license...
FMCDH(BITS)
In Tennessee it’s up to the officer. The court sees no difference between blood or breath. Rufuse and the implied consent law kicks in.
The cops have been out toda, at the underpasses on 75. They’re pulling people over for tags.
Is that Texas law?..... They now have this set up where they get a warrant and draw your blood like it or not. They have it set in a centeral location, judge on duty, nurse to draw the sample, etc. The refuser is brought in, the warrant is issued, the nurse draws the blood sample and the offender is processed..
Do you know that the above isn’t the procedure?
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or a regional vice-president from M.A.D.D. with too much time on her hands.
Good old MADD at its authoritarian best. Most states have refusal penalties that are roughly the same as conviction penalties, so it’s a moot issue, but apparently not in Texas. This’ll last until they get a non-drunk who’s on heparin, or a hemophiliac who bleeds to death on them. Then they’ll ‘rethink’ the idea.
This is ridiculous. I know someone with low blood sugar who sometimes faints when a blood test is taken.
I give them a stool sample if they’d hold the cup.
Probably have to pay a fine or come back.
But as said in post no. 2, they can take your licence through the courts. This is nothing new in California although I haven't heard of the blood test being used.
Who draws the blood, and how long do the results take? Right now, you blow into a machine and if it comes back negative and you’re not obviously impaired due to something else, you can drive off.
So do they take you to a hospital, where you wait for results to come from a lab, or do they have paramedics in the cruisers with an instant read machine?
Well...I have to say that alot of illegals celebrate Memorial Day...with alot of drinking. I live in a complex that’s full of em and it started last night. The dumpster is full of empty beer cans. Couldn’t even park in my lot last night for all the partying.
This would seem to violate the 5th Amendment, although I suppose they can take your license and make you jump through hoops to get it back, since a license is supposedly a privilege and not a right.
I happen to have veins that only an expert can take blood from—very hard to locate. And I don’t appreciate it when someone who is less than competent sticks me 5 or 6 times.
Too much time on her hands?
Perhaps she does have too much time. Time she could have spent with her loved one.
Except a drunk driver killed that loved one out on the highway.
Happens every day.
I’ve witnessed more forced blood draws in the last 15 years, then I can count. Sorry. Don’t get caught DUI in Nevada. You can’t refuse. Cops will simply take it.
I wonder who trains the officers? What happens if you get an infection or worse?
Sue their ass.
Actually Texas is a haven for drunk drivers.
The best place in the USA to drive drunk.
Texas is just 1 of 8 states that DO NOT have sobriety checkpoints.
On the one hand getting a drunk off the street is good but having a full invasive medical check is a little much...not unless they want to find out if it’s something other than alcohol....which is sometimes hard to determine if it isn’t booze.
What about the 5th amendment protection against providing evidence against yourself?
And our illegals who are driving drunk, as well as the idiots who never think they’ve had too much to drink, appreciate it.....
From an earlier article...To counter that, police have arranged to have judges standing by on no-refusal weekends, ready to sign search warrants that allow officers to get blood from drivers whether they like it or not. The weekend before this St. Patrick's Day, 32 people were arrested for DWI, and about half refused to give up their blood voluntarily to a certified medical technician stationed at the jail. Two resisted even after being served with search warrants and were cuffed and strapped into a chair so their blood could be drawn.
If you want the fourth and fifth amendment shredded, then say so, and we'll debate it.
But please spare me the Lifetime Channel melodramatics
MDM: Should a driver ever submit to a Breathalyser?OTS: Here’s the rule of thumb on that: You can exercise your rights and refuse at any time. If you know you’re over the legal limit, which most people won’t know, I wouldn’t do it. Why give evidence against yourself? That’s like robbing a bank and sending the police department a note a week ahead of time saying so.
MDM: The Attorney General of Wisconsin (Peg Lautenschlager) was recently cited for DUI and she refused the blood test. Does she know something we don’t?
OTS: Yes, she does. She knew she was probably over the limit and was being smart about it. If I was stopped for a DUI, I wouldn’t walk, I wouldn’t talk, I wouldn’t do anything that’s going to help that officer articulate in his report that you are intoxicated. You will be arrested, but you have to buck up and play the game. I don’t believe in that implied consent crap, it’s blackmail. I’d rather lose my license for a year than get a DUI charge.
A field sobriety test is completed, first. Once you fail the test, you are arrested. Once at the jail, you are given a choice. Breath test or Blood. If you refuse, a forced blood draw is completed.
A blood draw is almost 100 percent accurate. Whereas a breath test is not even close.
So... You want Texans to face conviction of DWI based on less than accurate breath tests?
Down around Kingman Arizona, they have a good thing going.
They stop you as far away from Kingman that their jurisdiction will permit, if you have out of state plates.
They accuse you of having a twitch in your eye. They ask you if you have been drinking. When you tell them no, and you blow a zero on a breathalyzer, they accuse you of smoking pot. Then they make you go through the whole sobriety test gymnastics, and if you don’t do them perfectly (in my case I have a hard time standing on one foot), they arrest you for a DUI. Then they tow your car, for almost $600, the rate set at $7 a mile. That is why they do this at the furthest point that their jurisdiction permits.
After spending 24 hours in jail, I went to pick up my car. The owner of the towing company said to me “How do you like my good friend officer Smith?
Now tell me that the cops aren’t getting a cut of the towing fee.....
They had no probable cause to stop me, no evidence to accuse me and no reason to arrest me.
And since you are from out of state, it makes no financial sense to defend yourself, so you are automatically found guilty.
Sure. Whatever. Consider yourself spared.
Untill YOU get that phone call telling you your daughter is dead.
And that a drunk driver did it.
And when that happens, FReep me. I will listen. I will provide your with MADD info that has helped thousands of people deal with their grief.
You certainly can refuse in Pennsylvania.
Of course, if you do refuse, your license will be suspended automatically for at least 6 months. And of course, based on the other evidence, you can still be convicted of DUI.
And when our freedoms have been taken away and we become serfs to the statist class who have shredded our Constitution, FReep me too. I will listen.
MADD has outlived their purpose and should disband. They are a authoritarian support organization now. Consider Chuck Hurley, he is the CEO And Chairman of MADD who will become chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He also believes that drivers should be randomly be pulled over and checked if they are doing anything wrong and should be cited. Stalin would be proud of this idiot.
SUBCHAPTER B. TAKING AND ANALYSIS OF SPECIMEN
Sec. 724.011. CONSENT TO TAKING OF SPECIMEN. (a) If a person is arrested for an offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed while the person was operating a motor vehicle in a public place, or a watercraft, while intoxicated, or an offense under Section 106.041, Alcoholic Beverage Code, the person is deemed to have consented, subject to this chapter, to submit to the taking of one or more specimens of the person's breath or blood for analysis to determine the alcohol concentration or the presence in the person's body of a controlled substance, drug, dangerous drug, or other substance.
(b) A person arrested for an offense described by Subsection (a) may consent to submit to the taking of any other type of specimen to determine the person's alcohol concentration.
Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1013, Sec. 32, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.
Sec. 724.012. TAKING OF SPECIMEN. (a) One or more specimens of a person's breath or blood may be taken if the person is arrested and at the request of a peace officer having reasonable grounds to believe the person:
(1) while intoxicated was operating a motor vehicle in a public place, or a watercraft; or
(2) was in violation of Section 106.041, Alcoholic Beverage Code.
(b) A peace officer shall require the taking of a specimen of the person's breath or blood if:
(1) the officer arrests the person for an offense under Chapter 49, Penal Code, involving the operation of a motor vehicle or a watercraft;
(2) the person was the operator of a motor vehicle or a watercraft involved in an accident that the officer reasonably believes occurred as a result of the offense;
(3) at
the time of the arrest the officer reasonably believes that as a direct result of the accident:
(A) any individual has died or will die; or
(B) an individual other than the person has suffered serious bodily injury; and
(4) the person refuses the officer's request to submit to the taking of a specimen voluntarily.
(c) The peace officer shall designate the type of specimen to be taken.
(d) In this section, "serious bodily injury" has the meaning assigned by Section 1.07, Penal Code.Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1013, Sec. 33, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 422, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
“Texas is just 1 of 8 states that DO NOT have sobriety checkpoints”
I’m so glad you said that. New York does them whenever they please - I asked my husband WHY on earth they haven’t been declared unconstitutional here yet? It was so weird to me coming here from Texas. My dad was a lawyer and he SO preached “probable cause”! Taking your blood without your permission or making you blow into a breathalizer is SO against the 5th amendment! Consequences are usually a cold pair of bracelets and a ride in a squad car, but by the time they can get you in front of a camera in a room, most folks are acting pretty normal...
We have had this in San Antonio and everyone thought it was against the Constitution, but it appears not to be. If you refuse to take a sobriety test on site the fuzz will take you in and get a warrant for your blood. Sucks in my opinion, but there are a hell of a lot of drunks here.
My favorite is when they ask you to recite the alphabet backwards. Anyone stupid enough to even try is obviously drunk as far as I’m concerned.
Lucky for you that you made it out of Texas alive.
Percentage wise - we lead the nation in DWI fatalities due to our lenient laws.
But... the proposals are in the legislature to enact these checkpoints.
Lets hope they pass!
someone suggested an idea to me the other day.. allow drunk driving from 2 to 3 am every night.. so that drunks could get home.. and sober people would know to stay off the roads during that time..
Yep been ongoing for some time now. It has been challenged but so far as I know it hasn’t been found illegal. I don’t keep up with the legal challenges so since they are doing it this weekend around the state I assume the law is still in place/valid.
You certainly can refuse in Pennsylvania.
You can refuse here in Texas but get ready for the ride downtown to a central location where they have a judge is on duty 24 hrs/day, a warrant is issued and the nurse draws the sample.
They can pull my license, but I have to have it for my work. I do not drink and drive, period. They had better be ready for a suit. I'll go after the officer(s), their dept. and the City/County/State. This is an absurd imposition on everyone - assuming we're all guilty until proven innocent. That is not right. Anyone who freely gives up liberty to ensure safety deserves neither.
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