Can you avoid a sobriety checkpoint?
If you see a sobriety checkpoint up ahead, you may want to avoid it for any number of reasons. However, it may seem like something you have to go through due to the way it’s set up.
But do you actually need to go through a sobriety checkpoint when you see one? Or is it legal for you to avoid them?
How officers handle sobriety checkpoints
LifeSafer discusses avoiding sobriety checkpoints. Essentially, you do not have a legal obligation to go through these checkpoints when you see them.
Similarly, officers also have legal obligations when they set up these checkpoints. For one, they often have to give a warning in advance that a sobriety checkpoint is up ahead. Many also have to provide alternative routes for those who want to avoid it.
Legally avoiding them
However, it is important to avoid the checkpoint in a legal way in order to avoid getting pulled over. After all, officers monitoring the checkpoint will often keep an eye out for people turning around and attempting to avoid it. They may regard you with suspicions about your reasons for leaving.
Thus, always make sure not to take illegal turns or U-turns. Do not cross double lines or solid lines. Do not cut off any other drivers or drive in a reckless way, which includes speeding.
You should also keep an eye out for anything unrelated to breaking the laws of the road which could still get you pulled over, like having a broken tail light or expired plate stickers. Officers can and may still pull you over for these infractions as a way to get you off the road so they can potentially engage in field sobriety testing.
As a nurse, you have dedicated your life to helping others. You have also gone through several years of school and may have a significant amount of debt.
Once you reach your goal of being a nurse, you may wonder what will happen if you are convicted of DWI. Will your nursing license be suspended or revoked? How will this charge impact your career?
The penalties for your first DWI
In Texas, first-time DWIs are often charged as class B misdemeanors. While this is true, if there are other circumstances surrounding your arrest, such as an open container or if you received the DWI while a child was in your vehicle, the charges will likely be increased. You may even face felony charges in these cases, which impact both your nursing and driver’s license.
The impact of a DWI on your nursing license and nursing career
As a nurse, you are expected to conduct yourself in a certain way and follow set rules and regulations. The penalties of a DWI to your nursing career are at the mercy of the Texas Board of Nurses.
Not all first offense DWI charges will result in you losing your nursing license. However, if there are extenuating circumstances, additional charges or subsequent DWIs received, this may change.
Protect your nursing license and your rights
Remember, when you receive a Texas DWI, you have the right to fight it. Usually, if you can have the charges reduced or dropped, your nursing career nor your license will be affected. However, each case is unique, so it is best to know the law and take steps to protect your rights in this situation.
A struggle with the police will not help your case
You’ve been a law-abiding citizen for years and never had so much as a warning from law enforcement. Suddenly, you find yourself surrounded by police officers who claim you are a suspect in a criminal investigation. They inform you that you are under arrest.
Naturally, you are outraged by the prospect of this. You’ve done nothing wrong and wish to protest this fact. In criminal cases, timing is everything. And as difficult as it may be, the best place to protest your innocence is further down the line, when you have knowledgeable support behind you. It’s highly unlikely that you are going to talk the police at the scene from arresting you, especially when they have identified you as a suspect.
Focus on your breathing
A confrontation with police officers can be stressful, even when it is perfectly amicable. If you’re not used to this type of scenario, you could suffer a panic attack. It’s very important to gain control of your breathing at this stage. Deep breaths can help you to regain your composure. The calmer you are, the better placed you are to assert your rights calmly but firmly.
Physicality could add to your charges
Resisting arrest is a criminal offense in Texas. If you’re in a vehicle, your panicked state may lead you to try to flee the scene. If you feel physically threatened, you may try to run away or prevent the officers from cuffing you. If you do any of these things, you may be charged with evading arrest. Even if the initial charges against you turn out to be fabricated, you could still be convicted for trying to obstruct law enforcement in their duties, so it’s simply not worth it.
You are innocent until proven guilty, and you will have time to make your case. A more favorable outcome may be achieved if you wait until you have the appropriate legal guidance behind you.
To many people, allegations of driving while intoxicated (DWI) are less serious than other offenses. Unlike assault or homicide, drunk driving does not always have a measurable adverse impact on other people. Often, DWI charges are the result of traffic stops, not crashes, so the person accused hasn’t even caused provable harm to others.
Despite the way people perceive DWI charges, they are common and serious offenses in Texas. They can lead to jail time, fines and the loss of your license. In some cases, you could even find yourself facing felony charges. When will Texas charge you with a felony over drunk driving allegations?
When you have multiple prior offenses
When you already have two or more DWI convictions on your record from within the last ten years, the state will usually charge you with a felony for a third or subsequent DWI. The offense will be a third-degree felony, which carries between two and 10 years in state custody and as much as $10,000 in fines.
When you cause injury or a death
An impaired driver who causes a crash that injures or kills another person could face felony charges. Even if they have no prior history of drunk driving, causing injury or death to others will lead to more serious penalties than a DWI arrest resulting from a traffic stop or a DWI crash that only causes property damage.
When someone gets hurt seriously by a drunk driver, the driver could face intoxication assault charges, which is another third-degree felony. If a pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist or person in another vehicle dies because of a drunk driving crash, the charges are even more serious. Intoxication manslaughter is a second-degree felony, which could mean between two and 20 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines if you plead guilty or the courts convict you.
When you have a child passenger
A DWI arrest that occurs when someone has a passenger under the age of 15 in the vehicle will result in a state jail felony charge. The penalties include between 180 days and two years in jail and fines.
Although it won’t result in a felony charge, a DWI charge involving allegations of a blood alcohol concentration over 0.15% could lead to enhanced sentencing. Learning about the rules that govern Texas DWI charges can help you make better decisions after an arrest.
Assault is not only a serious criminal charge, but it comes with certain violent connotations. Those convicted of assault could face lengthy jail sentences and find it hard to obtain work upon release.
While a physical attack such as punching someone, kicking them or even a shove, could be classified as assault, defining the crime is not always that simple. Must there be physical contact for an assault to occur?
What the law says
The crime of assault is outlined in Chapter 22 of the Texas Penal Code. The key elements of the crime include “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly” causing injury to someone or causing physical contact with another person if you know or “reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.” Crucially, there is also a third element. A person may be guilty of assault if they intentionally or knowingly threaten another with “imminent bodily injury.”
What this means is that physical contact is not necessary. A person can be charged with assault if they threaten another person with bodily injury.
Protecting your rights
Having a firm grasp of the law regarding assault in Texas is pivotal in protecting your rights. You may have been in a verbal confrontation that had no presence of the imminent threat of violence. Perhaps you were in fear of your safety, and opted to defend yourself using reasonable force.
Facing assault charges is a serious matter that could impact both your personal and professional life. If you find yourself in this situation, you need to assert your legal rights.
Why alcohol doesn’t affect everybody equally
Imagine that you go out drinking with a friend, and the two of you have the exact same drinks. Maybe you just drink a handful of the same beers, which both of you love. Either way, you know that you consumed the exact same alcohol, in the exact same form, that they did.
On the way home, both of you get pulled over by the police. Their blood alcohol concentration comes back at 0.06%, but yours comes back at 0.08%. Now you’re facing DWI charges, and you’re confused how your BAC could have possibly been higher since you didn’t drink anymore.
The thing to remember is that drinks do not impact all people in exactly the same way. There are a lot of different factors that can change how one drink alters your BAC.
What are these factors?
The following is not an exhaustive list, but it is just a few of the factors that can change how hard the alcohol hits you and how high is your BAC rises when you have a drink:
- Your gender
- Your weight
- How often you drink
- How quickly you drink
- Your alcohol tolerance
- Medications you may be taking
For instance, it is very common for women to have a higher BAC than men when they drink the same amount of alcohol. This could have something to do with weight, as women also tend to weigh less, but it has been linked to gender regardless.
You may be surprised to find out that you were over the legal limit, but that doesn’t mean the situation is behind you. You absolutely need to know about all of your legal defense options.
Does a cup of coffee sober you up?
Say you’re out with your friends having a few drinks, and it becomes time to go home. You feel a little more intoxicated than you expected, and you mentioned that you don’t think it’s quite safe for you to drive yet.
One of your friends tells you that a great solution is simply to have a cup of coffee. If you sit in the coffee shop for 20 minutes and drink one, is that going to sober you up enough so that you can drive home without worrying about getting a DWI?
This is a myth
People say this all the time, but it is a myth. Coffee doesn’t sober you up. Neither does a cup of water. Neither does eating a meal. None of these things are going to reduce your blood alcohol concentration.
Why does this myth keep getting repeated? There are a few reasons. For one thing, drinking on a full stomach can make it take longer for the alcohol to get to your bloodstream and through your digestive system, so people assume that putting something – food or coffee – into that system after the fact will make you feel more sober. But the alcohol has already entered your bloodstream at that point, so that’s not going to impact it.
Additionally, coffee does make you feel more awake due to the caffeine. People probably confuse feeling alert with being sober, even though the two are not the same thing.
Have you been arrested?
If you took this advice and got arrested when you thought that you were sober enough to drive, it’s very important for you to carefully consider all of your criminal defense options at this time.
Shoplifting is one of the more common forms of theft in Texas. Although many times shoplifting is an opportunistic crime involving children or teenagers putting items in their pocket or grabbing something and running out of the store, sometimes shoplifting is a well-planned and even organized act.
Store managers, loss prevention professionals and security officers are all on the lookout for warning signs of shoplifting. Any of the three behaviors below could lead to charges as easily as stealing something from the store could.
Disabling or removing security devices
Successful shoplifting often depends on avoiding the notice of security. People who intentionally remove security devices by opening packaging or who carry special tools to deactivate the devices could face arrest even if they never leave the store.
Concealing merchandise
Putting a pair of sunglasses that you want to buy inside the box for the shoes you intend to buy may make it easier for you to carry everything, but it may also lead to suspicions from retail workers about your true intentions. The way that you use a shopping cart could also lead to people suspecting you of concealing merchandise for the intention of removing it from the store without paying for it.
Removing, replacing or altering a price tag
Some people shoplift not by outright stealing but by paying far less than an item is worth. Any attempt to alter or replace the barcode or price tag on an item at a retail shop could lead to a shoplifting charge even if you don’t steal anything.
Recognizing the different behaviors that could lead to theft charges in Texas will potentially help you from making errors with lasting consequences.
As a professional driver, you rely on using your vehicle lawfully every day. Without the appropriate license, you simply wouldn’t be able to do this.
Having legal access to your vehicle means that you can provide for your family, cover the bills and lead a relatively comfortable life. All of this means that your license is something that’s worth fighting for. The truth is, a DWI can place all of this in jeopardy. As a professional driver, it is vital that you defend yourself when facing DWI charges, and here’s why:
License suspension
The state can revoke your driving license if you are convicted of DWI offenses. This could turn your life upside down, particularly if you drive for a living. You will have to rely on other means of transport, at least for a while, and they may simply not be practical. Ultimately, you might have to seek another vocation, which can be challenging in a sometimes volatile employment market.
Insurance policies
Even if you manage to avoid license suspension after a DWI conviction, there are other factors to consider. Insurance companies tend to take a dim view of people who have been prosecuted for driving violations. Your insurance premiums may skyrocket or you might lose coverage altogether. If you drive for a living, it is possible that you require specialist insurance, which can be put at risk with convictions.
DWI charges can impact your personal life and employment, which is why you must challenge them if placed in this position. Having a firm understanding of your legal rights in Texas will help you to achieve the best possible outcome in your case.
During encounters with the public, police officers are frequently looking for signs of criminal activity. They may ask questions in the hope that someone will implicate themselves or conduct searches to look for evidence that connects someone to a crime.
Sometimes, the request to search will seem like a non-issue. You probably assume that a police officer going through your vehicle during a traffic stop won’t find anything because you know that you didn’t break the law and have nothing inappropriate in your vehicle.
Unfortunately, what you don’t know can hurt you when it comes to a law enforcement search of your vehicle.
If anyone else has been in your car, you don’t know what’s in there
If you bought a used vehicle, drive carpool for your high school son’s hockey team or sometimes drive your co-workers out of state for regional meetings, you don’t actually know what might be in your vehicle.
If anyone else has been inside your car, whether they were a passenger or a professional helping to detail clean the vehicle, they could have left something behind in your vehicle. Pocket knives that violate state law or baggies full of prohibited drugs could slip out of someone’s pocket, purse or duffle bag while they are in your vehicle.
If you cross paths with police officers with that person in your car, they may have hidden something in your vehicle intentionally and then forgot that they took something out of their pocket and shoved it in the crevice where the bottom cushion meets the backrest. You won’t know what’s there until police find it later, and at that point, they may try to arrest you and charge you with a crime.
Police will have to establish constructive possession
If a police officer finds you with drugs in your pocket or your purse, they can easily show that the drugs were in your possession and under your control. There are extra steps involved in this process if they find something in your home or vehicle but not in your immediate possession.
Generally, they will need to establish constructive possession, which means they have to prove that you knew the items were there and that you had control over them. If you can raise a reasonable doubt about that, you may be able to defend against those charges.
Knowing your rights and how the police build a case against you can help you better manage a traffic stop and avoid drug charges.
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