RELEASED: Feb. 20, 2012
WINSTON SALEM, NC – A Raleigh criminal lawyer of Marcilliat & Mills PLLC directed the defense of the same DWI charge in three separate trials, ultimately getting a Not Guilty verdict for his client.
The case was originally tried in August of last year at the District Court level. At a bench trial, the judge found the defendant Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for Driving While Impaired. The DWI defense lawyer entered an appeal to Superior Court for his client the next week. In October of 2011, the first jury trial was conducted and the jury voted 9-3 for a Not Guilty verdict. Despite deliberating for two days, the jury members could not come to a unanimous decision. When a jury can’t reach a unanimous verdict, a mistrial is declared, and the District Attorney’s Office has the option of retrying the matter until a unanimous verdict is entered.
In this case, the District Attorney’s Office decided to retry the matter in January of 2012. In an attempt to bolster the State’s case, the Assistant DA called to the stand an expert witness in standardized field sobriety testing and a drug recognition expert. The defense lawyer from Marcilliat & Mills PLLC asked to be heard at a pretrial “motion in-limine” to exclude and or sequester the experts. The judge decided to allow the Drug Recognition Expert to testify first, but would not allow him to testify later to bolster the State’s claims. He also granted the defense attorney’s motion to separate, or sequester, the expert witnesses during the testimony.
During the trial, the defense focused on the numerous inconsistencies in the State Trooper’s Driving While Impaired Report. While the State’s first expert witness testified, the impaired driving defense lawyer used him to establish the proper way to administer field sobriety tests and the proper way of documenting the results in the report. Unfortunately, many of these procedures were not followed on the night of the arrest. When the arresting officer took the stand, it became clear that he had not adhered to proper procedure that State’s expert testified to during our defense attorney’s cross examination. The jury returned a Not Guilty verdict after 45 minutes of deliberation.
Strengthening the defense position was the fact that there was no breath sample submitted at the station, and the trooper decided not to draw blood, even though he had a right to request a sample. Without a definite level of impairment to work with, and after hearing testimony rife with inconsistencies, the jury came back unanimously for the defense.
For more information about the Marcilliat & Mills PLLC, see his criminal defense website and criminal defense blog. Our team of skilled criminal defense attorneys who defend against sex crime charges, DWI charges and abuse charges, among others in Wake County. To contact Marcilliat & Mills PLLC, please contact the law firm or call 919-838-6643 for a free consultation. Marcilliat & Mills PLLC can also be followed on Facebook at facebook.com/nc.criminal.defense.
DISCLAIMER: The cases, facts and outcomes discussed in this press release are illustrative of the matters handled by the firm. Actual case results depend on a variety of factors unique to each case. Not all of the firm’s case results are included on this site. The outcome of a particular case cannot be predicated upon a lawyer’s or law firm’s past results because prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome..
North Carolina v. J.S.
Accusation: Indecent Exposure
Potentially Facing: 30 days in Jail
Result: Case Dismissed
Marcilliat & Mills PLLC acted quickly, meeting with the DA’s office to mitigate on behalf of their client, who had no prior criminal history. The Defendant had cooperated fully with the officer. At defense counsel’s prompting, the ADA spoke with his Law Enforcement Officers and determined that Defendant had been through enough already. Dismissed on the first court date.