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Whenever you see a DUI arrest documented on one of the police television police shows, there is always a videotape of the driving, the field sobriety tests, and other parts of the processing.  Sometimes, the video also includes the actual breath test.  People expect that DUI arrests will be recorded.Most people are shocked, however,  to [...]

Now that the holidays are upon us, all of the local police agencies will be conducting holiday DUI emphasis patrols. This means an increased presence of law enforcement on the freeways, highways, county roads and city streets whose sole mission is to detect and arrest drivers who are under the influence of alcohol.

As always, the [...]

Every Washington State DUI arrest should be well documented in a DUI police report. DUI police officers receive special training in report writing so that they can testify fully when a DUI case is litigated in court. In past years, we have seen a few strange things regarding police report writing. A few officers had [...]

The partners at Fox Bowman Duarte have once  again been honored with the invitation to speak at the Washington state DUI Judicial Forums being held throughout the state in September, 2009. These annual forums, sponsored by the Washington State District and Municipal Court Judges Association, consist of presentation and discussion of current DUI issues of [...]

One of the “standardized” field sobriety tests routinely given in a Seattle DUI arrest is the “eye test” otherwise known as the test for Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus. In this test, the DUI arresting officer looks for “bouncing” or “jerking” of the eyes as they follow a stimulus, usually a finger or a pen. If the [...]

Field sobriety tests have been used to investigate DUI arrests in Washington state for decades. They have evolved from picking up pennies and saying your abc’s backward to the current battery of Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. This battery consists of the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, the Walk and Turn test and the One Leg Stand [...]

In past years it was common procedure for Washington State DUI arrests to be recorded on police video. Jurors have come to expect this, based upon TV shows such as “Cops.” Video recording a DUI arrest is good public policy because the video constitutes independent verification of what actually happened during the entire DUI arrest [...]

Every DUI stop, whether a DUI in Seattle, Bellevue, King County, or a DUI stop elsewhere in Washington State, is likely to involve field sobriety tests. Most people submit to the field sobriety tests on the assumption that (1) they are required to take the tests and (2) if they “pass” the field sobriety tests, [...]

Most people are familiar with the “usual” balancing and coordination field sobriety tests that are given to a driver who has been detained on suspicion of DUI. These tests include “walking the line,” balancing on one leg, and sometimes the finger to nose test. A very coordinated person who is in good physical condition is [...]

In February of this year, the long anticipated decision in State v. Baity, 140 Wn.2d 1 (2000) was published and the battle over the admissibility of Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) was thrust to the forefront. HGN is the side to side jerking of the eyeball, a natural phenomenon that can be exaggerated by the consumption [...]