The importance of police KGA Broadcasts can never be underestimated. My client tells me about his stop and subsequent arrest and I expect I will see the same information in the police report. I have had cases with this officer before and know what he does EVERY TIME- offers a PBT. The key to the case is the result of the PBT that he always offers and that my client took. Well guess what? There is no PBT listed in the police report. My client who was not either under the influence or impaired goes nuts. He says the only reason he was arrested was because he never took the alcohol restriction off his driver’s license (it could have been removed 2 years ago). The officer told him without the alcohol restriction he would have let him go. My client is so upset and when he sees he is also being charged with a DUI he refuses the breath test at the station.
The PBT is admissible by the defense and I figured it was just above the .02 threshold for a violation of the alcohol restriction. How can I prove he took the PBT, and the fact that it was not recorded in the PBT logs or in the police report means it was at the threshold level. My client tells me that the officer called the station to verify the alcohol restriction AFTER the PBT. Well if the officer had enough for a real DUI he would not even bother with that call and just arrest him and charge him with everything. I get the tape and there is the call with the alcohol restriction question being asked. I take the tape and every single DUI police report I have for the officer and take them to the prosecutor. The probable cause in the case was thread bare because the stop was shaky to begin with. The prosecutor calls the officer and the DUI is dismissed.
Today I am in court and see the officer and the defense attorney approaches me. I tell him the story and read his file over and a PBT was offered. Now the officer has a video EXCEPT he turns the audio off when he is talking to the defendant and turns it on when he speaks to other police. The prosecutor learns about all of this and drops the DUI in that case- I am promised a lunch by defense counsel for my assistance. I thought the video system would end the problem but it has only exacerbated it. Luckily I got the KGA Broadcast tape because without it my client is not going to get a fair trial.