What not to do when the cops are investigating you for DUI...

According to a story in South New Jersey's Courier Post Online, Matthew Tubertini, 29, of Mount Laurel New Jersey, was arrested at 3:10 AM after getting himself into an accident. Of course, it really makes for a rotten day when you wreck your car. And when it is a single vehicle accident as reported in this case, it's pretty hard to blame the other guy.

But one very important thing you should always remember after having such an accident is that the police who respond are not your friends. They may be concerned for your welfare, they may be polite and professional, but you have to keep in mind that every cop is looking to charge you or any other stranger they encounter with a crime. That's their job. It's what they get paid to do. In fact, officers frequently receive overtime pay for the hours they spend in court - so the more charges they rack up, the more they get paid.

So what should you do when the police start asking questions? You should shut up. Very rarely do suspects take advantage of the very powerful right to remain silent. But the ironic truth is that practically every DUI suspect talks himself or herself into a DUI. I once had a client that blew a .25% BAC after wrecking his car. I was able to walk him out of court without a DUI conviction, without an ignition interlock, without license suspension, without a 15 day "mandatory" jail sentence, and with only a minor fine on a reduced charge. How? Easy. He was too drunk to talk.

Because he couldn't answer the officer's questions about what time he had wrecked the truck or whether he had consumed any alcohol after the accident, there was no way they could convict him. I was able to get the prosecutor to agree to a guilty plea on a much lower charge because they knew I would be able to suppress the results of the Breath Alcohol Test. Unfortunately Mr. Tubertini took another course. After being arrested for DUI and released, he returned to the police station with a baseball bat, allegedly to "to damage police vehicles and confront officers at the station." Not good. Don't.