Not Guilty — Felony Driving While Intoxicated (DWI)

Steve Walsh and his associate, Barbara “BJ” Knapp - in her very first jury trial -- represented a Defendant on a felony DWI charge and several other misdemeanor traffic violations. This was a change of venue case from neighboring Ripley County.

This was a blood draw case where Defendant’s blood alcohol was 0.124%. The presumptive level of intoxication in Missouri is 0.08%. Defendant did not testify. A video of the trooper’s dashcam of the stop was shown to the jury and it showed that the client was having no trouble walking, bending down, speaking clearly and coherently. Two lay witnesses for the Defendant testified they interacted with the Defendant right after the 2-car crash and he did not show any signs of being intoxicated.

On cross-examination, Steve was able to get the Missouri State Highway Patrolman to admit that the Defendant had asked to speak to a lawyer and that he was not given the opportunity to do so and that this was a violation of Missouri statute. After an hour of deliberations, the 12 man/women jury came back with a Not Guilty verdict on the felony DWI.