Sample Drunk Driving Cases Handled by William C. Head

Case 24
State v. W.M.
Fayette County State Court
Fayetteville, Georgia

The Defendant, W.M., had three glasses of wine at home in Peachtree City one evening.  He had the wine with dinner and later completed some paperwork related to his job.  The next morning, at approximately 4:30 a.m., W.M. awoke and began doing paperwork and cleaning the house.  Noticing the wine that was left over from the previous night, W.M. poured the remainder into a glass and discarded the bottle.  W.M. finished that glass of wine by 9:15 a.m..

At 9:30 a.m., W.M. ran some errands, including a stop at the grocery store.  Then, at noon, W.M. and his wife had lunch and watched the start of a college football game.  Over this period of time, they consumed several glasses of wine at their home.

Later that evening, around 4:30 p.m., W.M. decided to mow his lawn.  He had a riding lawn mower since the lawn was over an acre in size.  W.M. was trying to cut the grass along a muddy/sloping area of the lawn.  The lawn mower began to lose traction and began to slide down the hill, tipping over the mower and throwing W.M. from it.   The mower rolled over with the metal engine housing striking W.M. in the head.  He was knocked unconscious.  When W.M. woke up, he was being attended to by some passing motorists.  The blow to his head had caused short-term memory loss and confusion.  Fortunately, the blade of the mower stopped when the rollover occurred. 

When emergency personnel were called, so were the Peachtree City police.  A sergeant on the DUI task force arrived and began questioning W.M. about the accident and asking “how much alcohol” had been consumed.  W.M. was, at first, incredulous that he was being investigated for DUI while all this was occurring.  Then he was arrested and taken to jail for suspicion of DUI.

We subpoenaed the sergeant’s videotape and it revealed a very confused and incoherent W.M. who was speaking in a jumbled, rambling way.  It also showed the officer laughing and ridiculing W.M. about his alleged “intoxication”.  The officer seemed to ignore W.M.s head injury or its ramifications.

With this bizarre set of facts and being somewhat disturbed by the officer’s conduct, W.M. refused all tests and remained silent.

The next day, after experiencing severe pain, W.M. went to see a doctor.  His doctor diagnosed him with a mild concussion and muscle and tendon damage to his neck and shoulder.

In preparing the defense for the case, the goal was to get the DUI dismissed on the grounds that the officer had no probable cause to arrest W.M. for DUI.  The officer never even saw him on the lawn mower.  This was successful prior to trial.  The DUI was dropped entirely.  Instead, W.M. plead guilty to “reckless conduct” (not a motor vehicle offense) and paid a $500.00 fine ($400.00 plus surcharges).  No trial was required as a result of this negotiated plea.  No “points’ were put on the driving record of W.M..

By resorting to the videotape footage, we were able to show the officer’s behavior.  In addition to his “attitude” toward W.M., he improperly read the implied consent warning which was prerequisite to being able to legally request a breath, blood or urine test.

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