You have just been charged and possibly arrested with an After-the-Fact DUI in Decatur. You need to know what that charge is and what it means to you. The DUI defense lawyers at The SHElaw firm® can advise you about an After the Fact DUI and any other offenses you have along with it. Fighting Driving Under the Influence charges can be complicated. After-the-Fact Driving Under the Influence has additional difficulties to contend with.
What is After the Fact DUI?
It is unusual for the police to come to your home to charge you with an After-the-Fact DUI. Usually, an After-the-Fact DUI is in addition to other driving incident charges. Some examples include:
- You were involved in an accident, but the responding officers did not test or charge you with a DUI at the scene. You may or may not have received a traffic accident charge.
- The police were involved in a high-speed police pursuit and had reason to believe you were driving the vehicle that eluded their officers. If they have proof to believe that you were doing drugs or drinking alcohol, they will add an After the Fact DUI charge to the multitude of other offenses when they locate you.
- The police have evidence you were the driver of a vehicle in an accident and left the scene of the wreck. They have identified you or your vehicle as involved in the accident. The police believe you left the accident because you were intoxicated.
- The police have identified you or your vehicle in a hit-and-run crash with bodily injury or death. They have what they believe is proof you ran into or over someone and left the accident. They present you left the scene because you were under the influence of drugs or alcohol..
- Any other occurrence where the police believe they can prove you were driving intoxicated, but they did not charge you for a DUI at the time. They feel there is enough evidence available now to prove the guilt.
According to Georgia DUI law, prosecutors can add After-the-Fact DUI charges to the above examples. Your charges may be similar or can differ from these. We will construct your personalized defense around the specifics of your case.
What Proof Do the Police Need to Charge After the Fact DUI?
The police must gather evidence from multiple sources for the prosecutors to prove their case.
Witnesses
They must have witnesses to the accident or immediately after it relating to your behavior. Questions will focus on seeing erratic driving, unusual behavior, desire to leave the scene, and exiting from the location prematurely.
Associates
The police will question the people that you spend time with. If you were with them during the period before the accident, the focus is on the type and amount of drugs and/or alcohol you consumed. They will also question them about your mood, attitude, and the words you were saying right before you left. The detectives will pin them down to a time that you left. For friendly associates that you were not with that evening, they want to establish a history of overconsuming, driving while under the influence, and misbehaving. If that pattern does not exist, those people will not be witnesses.
Video
The worse proof the prosecution can present for the After-the-Fact DUI is a video of your behavior. They may have shots from the club with you purchasing multiple drinks, of aggressive or careless behavior, get lost, or weave when walking in the parking lot. Video can be damaging. They may also have you driving erratically or have the actual wreck on video.
Even with some or all of this evidence, it can be difficult for the prosecution to win an After-the-Fact DUI charge against a good criminal defense lawyer.
What Defenses Does SHElaw Use Against After-the-Fact DUI Charges?
Your vehicle was not the one involved in the accident.
Do you have vehicular damage, or is there a video that can positively identify this vehicle as the one in the accident in Decatur? If not, this defense may be an option. If so, go to one of the other options.
You were not driving the vehicle.
Is the vehicle in question registered to you? Do you let others drive it at times? Did you have a driver’s license and insurance coverage on that date? If witnesses are to testify to prove your guilt, we will re-interview them to question the clarity of their memories. If a video is available, we will review the angle and clearness of the video.
The BAC results are unavailable or inaccurate.
If the police did not conduct your breathalyzer within three hours after the incident, the results may not be accurate. They should register lower when they are collected later. These results would help our case unless they are still not below the legal limit. If they are still high, one defense we might use is that you went somewhere and started drinking. The real point is the results are inaccurate.
Any Other Evidence of Doubt We Discover.
There may be other evidence that will create doubt in the eyes of the jury that we would bring to the forefront. There may be other witnesses that they chose not to call because they do not support the theory of the prosecution, we will call them. There may be some test results or evidence that supports your innocence that they minimized. We will bring these to the forefront. Any evidence that causes doubt to the jurors is worth presenting.
Contact SHElaw firm® Today if You Are Facing a DUI Charge in Decatur!
Getting charged with or arrested for an After-the-Fact DUI can be very upsetting. You may be innocent and afraid someone else is framing you for their misdeeds. You may have been guilty in the incident, and feeling great that you had gotten away with it. Most cases fall somewhere in the middle. The expert DUI Lawyers at SHElaw firm® can represent you in any of these situations and help get your charges dismissed or minimized.
