For those who are not familiar with this story, 23 year old Dennis Drue
was accused of causing an accident on the Northway that took the lives of two
local high school students. And to make
matters worse, he was accused of driving while his ability was impaired by the
consumption of alcohol and marijuana. His horrible prior driving record was
published in the papers, as well as his criminal convictions for marijuana
possession. Today, people are celebrating his guilty plea to 58 charges. And some are furious that the deal only calls
for 5 to 15 years of prison. The death penalty would not even be good enough for some.
In fact, some folks are time traveling in an attempt to keep Drue from ever existing, because
they believe he is an evil monster. Such is the hysteria of DWI.
Read the first sentence above again. He was accused of causing an accident. Whatever the cause, it was an
accident. Accidents happen whether one is
sober, stoned, or drunk. But if you
drink and drive, or drive while you have cannabis in your system, you should
know that you can’t drive safely right?
I say wrong, or at least I am not totally convinced. And that is where I find the motivation to practice
an area of law that for some folks, is evil. It may be even the work of the devil.
The fact is, for the witch hunter mentality types out there,
anyone accused of drunk or drugged driving, must be guilty. And alcohol and
drug related accident cases are especially evil for many folks. That is a
reality that criminal defense lawyers have to face when trying DWI cases. And
Dennis Drue most likely would never been able to get the right jury, due to the heavy
media coverage in the Saratoga area, and our small population. A similarly heavily covered case would be the Porco murder. And he got a change of venue.
By the right jury, I mean finding a juror that truly
understands, and has the capacity to embrace the concept of the presumption of
innocence, or a juror that can wrap their head around the concept of reasonable
doubt. A juror not tainted by exposure
to the Drue story. I live, work, and
breathe in Saratoga County and I don’t
know a single friend, neighbor, colleague, etc., that does not know about
this case. These juror qualities are required by the Constitution. Drue move
for a change of venue, and lost.
Herein lies the biggest problem with DWI laws; and they
become significantly more substantial in a case like Drue’s. We have yet to be able
to figure out a system that proves, with reliable and scientific accuracy, at
what point someone becomes an unsafe driver due to alcohol or drugs. But, we have established levels at which a
driver is assumed to be unsafe per se. It does
not matter who you are. Regardless of your age, your
health or, your level of tolerance. In NY and in most states, if you blow an .08 you are guilty. It doesn’t matter
that body temperature, certain ailments, mouth alcohol, machine calibration,
etc., can drastically affect your BAC as determined by a breath or blood test
machine. That number is the number. And even in the face of evidence of
sobriety, if a jury believes in that number, the defendant is guilty.
But we can’t let people get away with these
alcohol or drugged driving crimes, so we make an (un)educated guess about what
drunk or high is, and that guess is close enough. Is close enough good for Dennis Drue, who was
facing up to 25 years in prison if found guilty at trial? Would close
enough be good enough for your brother, your daughter, or your friend? One of the reasons the Drue case has been
sensational is because his BAC was less than .08%. The magic number was not there. He also had marijuana metabolites in his
system, but we don’t know if they were metabolites that are actually psychoactive,
or just remnants that actually have been proven to not cause any impairment or
dysfunction.
I don’t blame Drue for taking the deal. He had a great deal
to lose. But I am disappointed the trial
is off. My office is right down the
street from the Courthouse in Saratoga and I was looking forward to
observing. Especially the expert witness
testimony, because experts for the defense are so rare in DWI cases. And I
assumed with Steve Coffey for the defense and everything, they would have the
money to spend on real experts. Experts are common for the government though,
they are called police officers. In your
average DWI trial, there is no requirement that the DA explain any of the
science to the jury that assumptions are built upon. The cop is the straw man for
science on the stand. The court has
taken judicial notice of the validity of Field Sobriety Testing and breath test
technology because it is accurate beyond question, or at least, it is close
enough for government work.
I hope the families of the kids that died can find some kind
of peace.
