Colorado DUI Law
Drunk Driving Criminal Defense Attorney

Evaluating A Colorado DUI Case and the Deciding Factors. In most Colorado DUI cases, there are 3 pieces of evidence that are open to interpretation of the law.

Police Reports:

The police report is only the officer's interpretation; statements made by you could have been coerced, taken out of context, or misinterpreted.

Were any statements you made in custody voluntary after full advisement of your rights?

Did the police officer stop you for a valid reason?

Important:

The Intoxilyzer 5000, which measures Breath Alcohol Content, assumes that everyone has the same blood breath partition ratio, hematocrit ratio and assumes that all samples are at an air temperature of 93.2 F. Sometimes there is not an opportunity for an independent lab to retest breath samples. The computer software is proprietary and is not available to scientific peer review. There are many things which have been shown to affect a breath test score. These machines are generally not available for inspections by anyone outside of law enforcement. Usually, only non-law enforcement or government personnel have certification as breath test technical operators. Much of the Colorado breath program remains limited to outsiders despite a generally assumed belief that these machines have undergone and passed wide general scientific review.

Field Sobriety Tests:

Police make arrests on the basis of probable cause. This is not the same thing as "beyond reasonable doubt." It is not a police officer's job to determine if someone is guilty. Many police offers choose to arrest on the basis of caution.

There is much technical training for a police officer in the field of Colorado DUI Law. There is no law in Colorado which states they must keep up their training on a yearly or any other type of basis with respect to standardized field sobriety training. Many police officers do not make any form of notes on the side of the road with respect to numerous details. Most police officers do not include mitigating or exculpatory information in their reports, mainly negative observations.

Where there distractions during the testing? Were you nervous or tired during the testing?

If there was a video taping of the event, does it accurately depict your true state of sobriety at the time, or was it unfairly affected by perhaps traffic, poor lighting, noise, or lack of sound.

What is your true balance and coordination?

Do you have any physical disabilities that can cause false results?