On December 4, 2012, a 46-year-old woman was arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol. She had been spotted weaving on I-25 in Thornton. When an officer from the Thornton Police Department arrived at the scene, the woman had already pulled over on the side of the highway. The officer observed that the woman's eyes were bloodshot, her speech was slurred, and there was an odor of alcohol on her breath. When asked to step out of the vehicle to perform roadside field sobriety tests, the woman stumbled and had difficulty standing up, and she eventually declined to participate in the tests. None of this evidence was necessary, however, to prove that she was guilty of the crime of DUI. When the officer initially asked the woman why she had pulled over, her answer was simply, "I'm drunk."
This type of scenario is relatively commonplace in Denver and throughout Colorado. According to statistics provided by the Colorado Department of Transportation, there were 3,123 DUI / DWAI offenses in Denver County in 2011 alone. What sets this incident apart from the rest is that the woman who was arrested was actually the DUI officer for the Boulder Police Department. She has since resigned from her position, but at the time of her arrest, this woman was charged with the responsibility of helping to keep drunk drivers off the roads of Boulder. This was not a case of getting behind the wheel after having a single drink, either. Her blood alcohol concentration was reported to be at the level of 0.288 percent, more than triple the legal limit of 0.08 percent. The case serves as an excellent example of how a DUI arrest can happen to anyone. Some people, however, get off with a lighter sentence than others.
The former DUI officer was recently sentenced to serve 10 days of electronic home monitoring and one year of probation, as well as paying $400 in fines and performing 24 hours of community service. Her sentence was far lighter than the maximum sentence that is available for a DUI offense, which can include between 5 days and a year in jail, $600 – $1,000 in fines, and 48 – 96 hours of community service for a first-time DUI offender. If you have been arrested and charged with DUI, there is no guarantee that you will receive as light of a sentence as the former Boulder cop did. To maximize your chances of a favorable outcome, you need an experienced Denver DUI attorney on your side. Contact me now at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. so that we can discuss your case and begin working on a strategy for pursuing the best possible outcome.