Speaker 1: In this video, we will answer the question how you can use the field sobriety testing phase of a DWI investigation to help defend your criminal case in court. The answer to that question is coming right up after the intro. I am Steve Gustitis and welcome to Gustitis Law. Here at Gustitis Law, we provide people hope by imparting knowledge to them about the criminal justice system or the criminal charges that they may be personally facing in court. If you enjoy the content here at Gustitis Law, if you find it helpful, please consider subscribing to my channel by clicking on the subscribe link in the description below. This video is the fourth video in our series on defending DWI charges. In the description below, you'll find links to video 1, which was the overview, and videos 2 and 3, which covered the vehicle in motion phase and the personal contact phase of the investigation. In this video, we will focus now on the

Speaker 2: field sobriety testing.

Speaker 1: If you recall, officers are trained to administer field sobriety testing from a manual like this one, published by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. This manual is called DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing. Now, field sobriety tests are standardized tests. That means that the officers are trained to provide a suspect with standard instructions and standard demonstrations before asking the suspect to perform the tests. These tests that the officers administered are typically three standardized tests. The first is called the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test or the HGN. The second is called the Walk and Turn, which is a balancing test. And finally, the One-Leg Stand Test, which also is a balancing test. However, performing well on these tests, even in the best of situations, is very, very difficult. Sober people have difficulty performing these balancing tests. This is a high-stress situation and your performance on these tests can mean a trip home or a trip to the county jail. It stands to reason that because of nervousness or fear, you might make some mistakes performing on some of these sobriety tests. But the best DWI defense lawyers know that your performance on these tests is only half of the equation. These lawyers understand that the police officers themselves often make mistakes in administering these tests to you. They may fail to give you some standard instructions. They may fail to give you a standard demonstration. And consequently, a good defense lawyer can use the officer's mistakes against him to discredit his testimony and to challenge his opinion that he believed that you were intoxicated. For example, during the HGN test, part of the officer's standard procedure is to move the stimulus in front of your eyes at standard speeds, to hold it for a certain minimum number of seconds, or to move it in certain orders. Now, a good defense lawyer knows this. The defense lawyer knows that manual that we discussed earlier very, very well. And if an officer makes mistakes in administering the HGN test, those mistakes can be used to discredit him, sometimes even suppressing the HGN evidence altogether in court. During the walk and turn test and the one-leg stand test, again, the officers are required to give standard instructions and demonstrations. They're also required to assure themselves that the suspect understands what is expected of them. Now, I've reviewed hundreds and hundreds of DWI videos, and it amazes me how often the officers make mistakes and forget instructions or forget demonstrations. When this happens, the good defense lawyer can use those mistakes, again, against the officer and discredit their testimony in court. I think you can see then how critical it is that your lawyer know these manuals better than the police know these manuals. When they do, they can effectively cross-examine and challenge the police officer in the defense of your DWI case. Now, in our next video, we will go on to phase four of the police investigation, and that is typically the chemical testing. In our next videos, we'll discuss ways that your defense lawyer can challenge the breath testing result and, in a separate video, how they can challenge the blood testing result

Speaker 2: in court.

Speaker 1: If you found this video helpful, please, please consider giving it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe. You can also visit my website at www.GustavusLaw.com and there you can review blog post articles that I've written about my criminal defense experience over the last 27 years. You can download my free book on defending DWI cases, and you can also sign up for my free quarterly newsletter that goes out four times a year to subscribers. In any case, I appreciate your visit. Thank you for watching this video, and I look forward to seeing you the next time.