How Gender Affects Alcohol Absorption

You may already know that, all other things being the same, a woman will be more affected by an alcoholic drink than a man will. This primarily has to do with the differences in body composition between men and women. Women’s bodies have relatively more fat and less water (in the form of blood and other fluids) than men. This effect is compounded by the fact that women tend to be smaller and weigh less than men. Alcohol dehydrogenase (the enzyme that breaks down alcohol) is also believed to be lower in women than in men.

How Stomach Disease Affects Alcohol Absorption

Different stomach diseases have differing effects on the rate of stomach emptying (and consequently on the rate of alcohol absorption). Gastritis and gastric ulcers increase blood flow and speed up the process, while stomach cancer and gastric fibrosis slow it down. Infections by Helicobacter pylori (more common among chronic alcohol abusers) can significantly slow the rate of alcohol metabolism.

If you have been accused of drunk driving in Orange County, call (888) 444-7210 for a free case evaluation by Orange County DUI lawyer Tom Wallin.

Police departments usually use Alcohol Influence Report forms, in which the arresting officer will write down his personal observations of your appearance, behavior, and statements that may later end up being incriminating against you.

A good Orange County DUI Lawyer will see if there are any inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the police officer’s physical observations of you. An example would be a discrepancy between a high blood-alcohol content (BAC) result and an officer’s physical observations of your relatively normal behavior. Your lawyer can use this discrepancy to discredit the BAC test result.

If there is a videotape of your stop and arrest, and if it is favorable to you, then your attorney may call into question any negative physical observations noted in the Alcohol Influence Report as inconsistent with the video.

Your Orange County DUI Defense Attorney will check the availability of any videotaping of the incident and, if it is available, whether it will be used in your DUI case. If the police were able to videotape you but failed to do so, then it’s possible to have your entire Orange County drunk driving charge dismissed.

According to the Supreme Court, in order to get an acquittal because of the destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence, you must show that the prosecution acted in bad faith. Even if you can’t prove this, however, you can still get an inference that the tape, if it had been preserved, would have been favorable to you.

Orange County DUI Attorney Tom Wallin can help you if you’ve been arrested for driving under the influence in Orange County. He has experience in successfully handling DUI matters, and he will thoroughly investigate the facts of your case and come up with the best possible defense. For a free initial consultation, fill out the form on this page.

No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after the giving of an appropriate signal in the manner provided in this chapter in the event any other vehicle may be affected by the movement.

What this means, in a nutshell, is that you do NOT have to use your turn signal (blinker) unless there is another vehicle that could be affected by your turning movement.  Cops often times don’t know this provision in the code and think that you must always use your turn signal when changing lanes or turning.  Police who use this excuse to pull over DUI drivers often neglect to mention in their DUI report that there was another vehicle that could have been affected by that vehicle’s turning movement.

For the record, we are not saying that you should change lanes or make turns without using your signal and are certainly not condoning driving under the influence.  What we are saying is that if you are cited for a DUI, you should hire an experienced and knowledgeable Orange County DUI Attorney to help you with your DUI in Orange County.

A field sobriety test may include the following:

1.    Time estimation
2.    One leg stand
3.    Finger to nose
4.    Walk and turn
5.    Horizontal gaze nystagmus

How can I pass the field sobriety test?

A person can NOT pass a field sobriety test; however, a person also can NOT fail a field sobriety test.  That is because a field sobriety test is not a pass/fail test.  Basically, the test is designed for the police officer to make observations and take notes of these observations in his police report.  Later, these observations made by the police report will assist the district attorney in prosecuting you for driving under the influence.  A person pulled over by a police officer for suspicion of driving under the influence, should never participate in a field sobriety test.  A field sobriety test is completely voluntary and it is best to avoid a field sobriety test, since it is impossible to pass.

If you or a loved one is facing charges for driving under the influence, contact an Orange County DUI attorney and we will fight for you.

The consequences for committing a DUI offense are very serious. If your license is suspended after a first-time DUI arrest, you will spend at least 30 days with no driver’s license at all. After that, you can get a temporary restricted license. Driving with a suspended license is punishable for up to six months in a county jail and fine anywhere from $300 to $1,000. The second-time offenders, who submit for a chemical test, will lose their license for one year, and those who commit this violation for the third time are facing a three-year license revocation. However, starting January 1, 2012, the law will authorize the court to order a 10–year revocation of the driver’s license of a person who has been convicted of 3 or more specified DUI offenses if certain conditions apply.

If your driver’s license has been suspended, you will need an experienced Orange County DUI Attorney to vigorously represent you.

Anybody who is lawfully arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Orange County is deemed to have given their consent to chemical testing of his or her breath or blood for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his or her blood. Anybody who is lawfully arrested in California for Driving Under the Influence of drugs has given their consent to chemical testing of their blood or urine for the purpose of determining the drug content of their blood. These are the implied consent laws in California. The laws also require that the person shall be told that his or her failure to submit to, or the failure to complete, the required chemical testing will result in a fine, mandatory imprisonment if the person is convicted of a DUI and the suspension of the person’s privilege to operate a motor vehicle for a period of one year, or the revocation of the person’s privilege to operate a motor vehicle for a period of two or three years.

Often times an officer will not properly inform the person who is arrested for DUI about the consequences of their failure to submit to a chemical test. Unfortunately, many people will refuse to take a test and that leads to serious consequences. Usually, the officer will write that person up as a “refusal” which can trigger a mandatory one year suspension that does not allow for a restricted license under any circumstances. What’s worse is that the cops will usually “force” blood from the person by strapping them to a chair and/or holding them down with multiple officers. In these cases, the person still faces the one year mandatory suspension for refusal and the cops get their evidence anyways. Most often, refusing to submit to a chemical test is a losing proposition for a person arrested for DUI in California.

If you have been accused of DUI in California, you will need an experienced Orange County DUI attorney to vigorously represent you.

So the question is how do you convince a judge to throw out (or suppress) evidence? In California, the way you ask a judge to do this is by filing a Penal Code Section 1538.5 motion. The motion must be based on allegation that the police officer acted illegally, so that any evidence he obtained after his illegal conduct should be thrown out. For example, if the cop pulled you over illegally because he had no legitimate reason to pull you over, then everything he saw, heard, or obtained after he pulled you over would be inadmissible against you in trial.

Law enforcement officers frequently patrol areas near bars when the bars are closing late at night. The cops see which cars are parked in the bar parking lots at closing time. Then, when the bar customers leave the parking lot, the police officers will follow them and pull them over. The police officer must have a valid reason for pulling you over, such as running a stop sign. However, sometimes cops will pull the car over for no reason whatsoever. When that happens, there is a strong chance that a judge would throw out all incriminating evidence at a 1538.5 motion.

When an Orange County DUI Lawyer is evaluating the constitutionality of a detention based on a tip to the police, one must preliminarily note the distinction between “anonymous tipsters” (an individual who calls the police about a crime, but do not identify themselves and are not known to the police), “government agents” (otherwise known as “snitches”) and “citizen informants” (chance witnesses or crime victims who expose their identity).

With regard to “anonymous tipsters” and “government agents,” there is no presumption of reliability attached to their reports. With “citizen informants,” there is a presumption of reliability, but even this presumption does not dispense with the requirement that the informant provide underlying facts sufficiently detailed to cause a reasonable person to believe that a crime had been committed (See People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal3d. 263, at 269).

If the officer making an enforcement stop does not know whether the tipster exposed his identity, then the source of the information must be treated as an “anonymous tip.” This is because the constitutionality of the detention turns on what the officer knew prior to the enforcement stop and a police officer can legally stop a motorist only if the facts and circumstances known to the officer support at least a reasonable suspicion that the driver has violated the Vehicle Code or some other law. Call and OC DUI Lawyer today if you feel that you need help with this issue.

The police reported it appeared that the victim, riding a bicycle, was traveling east on Westminster Avenue in the bike lane when Hines drifted into the bike lane and struck the cyclist while traveling at a high rate of speed. The cyclist was struck and injured with major head trauma and fell to the ground.  The witnesses reported that Hines did not stop to check on the injured rider and continued driving. Witnesses then followed Hines to the location where he was arrested.

To be prosecuted for felony Driving Under the Influence (DUI) with injury, the District Attorney must prove that: the defendant was under the influence of any alcoholic beverage or drug, or under the combined influence of any alcoholic beverage and drug, and drove a vehicle. Moreover, it is unlawful for any person who has 0.08 percent or more, by weight, of alcohol in his or her blood to drive a vehicle. The defendant’s act caused bodily injury to another person.

If you or a loved one have been accused or charged with DUI, it is very important that you speak with an experienced Orange County DUI Attorney immediately.

The defense Bar is now preparing to ask the court to set aside jury verdicts and guilty pleas in cases where the devices were used. Deputy District Attorney Kevin Drescher conceded that prosecutors might have to dismiss some cases. Without these test results, the cases will eventually come down to the officer’s word versus the driver’s word. The officer can then testify to any observations that were made during any field sobriety tests, however some juries will even dismiss the results of these failed tests.

The CEO of St. Louis- based Intoximeters Inc., M. Rankine Forrester stated that a defect in the device’s mouthpiece allows moisture to enter in certain circumstances. Intoximeters is replacing the mouth piece and will return the devices in a couple of months.

If you or a loved one is facing a DUI charge, contact the criminal defense attorneys at the Law offices of Thomas Wallin.  We will work to aggressively defend you by investigating all aspects of your case. We will work to ensure that your rights are protected and that you clearly understand the legal process.