Another Judge Refuses to Blow

April 30th, 2008 at 08:57am Aaron Chambers

When the chief judge of Lake County was stopped recently for DUI, he reportedly refused to take a breath test.

Lake County Chief Judge David Hall refused to take Breathalyzer and field sobriety tests Saturday morning when he was pulled over for allegedly weaving across the center lane, according to Lake County court documents.

It’s no wonder. Judges know the law.

Last spring, in an examination of cases in which Illinois judges are stopped for DUI, the Register Star found that judges generally do not blow.

Illinois law encourages motorists arrested for DUI to consent to breath tests, and it penalizes them when they refuse. Under the law, anybody arrested for DUI in Illinois has given “implied consent” to testing of his or her breath, blood or urine to determine blood-alcohol concentration.

If you’re arrested for DUI and refuse a breath test, your driver’s license is automatically suspended for six months. A misdemeanor DUI conviction, on the other hand, means up to a year in prison, loss of driving privileges for a year, 100 hours of community service and a fine of up to $2,500, according to the Illinois secretary of state’s office.

With each subsequent conviction, the penalties grow.

Drivers who know the law know it may be in their best legal interest not to blow.

“You’re depriving the state of that evidence, so you’re enhancing the chances that you will avoid criminal sanctions that will ensue if you’re found guilty of criminal charges. And in exchange, you’re willing to accept the enhanced penalties — license penalties, not criminal penalties — because you refused,” said Larry Davis, a Des Plaines lawyer specializing in DUI defense.

“You’re not going to go to jail for refusing a breath test or a blood test or a urine test. You will go to jail if you are found guilty of DUI.”

The field sobriety test is another matter. Though there is a mandatory suspension for refusing to blow, there is no such mandatory suspension for refusing the field sobriety test. Interestingly, the Lake County chief judge reportedly refused the field sobriety test, too.

From the Register Star:

The question, as defense lawyer Davis sees it, is not so much whether to refuse to blow but whether to refuse field sobriety tests. He says the results of these tests can give police probable cause to arrest a DUI suspect, which in turn gives an officer the right to ask for a breath test.

Illinois law does not mandate a license suspension for refusing a field sobriety test.

“If you refuse a field sobriety test, you enhance the chances that the officer is not going to have probable cause to make the arrest to begin with,” he said. “If I am telling somebody at a cocktail party what you want to do to avoid a DUI, it’s ‘Don’t take the field sobriety test.’ ”

Entry Filed under: DUI