Refusing Field Sobriety Evaluations in Georgia: The Refusal Itself Is Not Admissible
If a Georgia State Patrol trooper or a Sandy Springs police officer asks you to perform field sobriety evaluations, you have a state constitutional right to say no. And under current Georgia Supreme Court law, the State cannot tell the jury that you refused. That rule comes from Article I, Section I, Paragraph XVI of […]
George C. Creal, Jr. Named to the Faculty of the National College for DUI Defense
George C. Creal, Jr., P.C. — Trial Lawyers Georgia DUI and Criminal Defense www.georgecreal.com | (404) 333-0706 George C. Creal, Jr. has been listed as faculty of the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD). The College’s faculty roster identifies him as an Atlanta trial lawyer and publishes his firm listing at georgecreal.com. See the official […]
Can a Later DUI Arrest Turn an Earlier Pending Case Into a Felony? Georgia’s Ten-Year Lookback Runs to the “Current Arrest”
George C. Creal, Jr., P.C. — Trial Lawyers Atlanta DUI & Criminal Defense www.georgecreal.com | (404) 333-0706 A fourth DUI in Georgia can be a felony. A third DUI in ten years is already a high and aggravated misdemeanor. The difference turns on how the ten-year window is measured. The statute does not say “count […]
Cross-Examining a GBI Toxicologist in a Gwinnett County DUI Blood Case
George C. Creal, Jr., P.C. — Trial Lawyers Gwinnett County and Metro Atlanta DUI Defense www.georgecreal.com | (404) 333-0706 A Gwinnett DUI jury often hears one number: the blood-alcohol result from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Division of Forensic Sciences. The State treats that number as the end of the case. It is not. The […]
Is the NHTSA HGN Test Reliable Science in a Georgia DUI Case?
If you were arrested for DUI in Georgia after an officer scored “clues” on the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) eye test, prosecutors will often treat those clues as scientific proof of impairment. They should not get a free pass. The Kansas Supreme Court put the reliability problem in plain language in City of Wichita v. […]
Ambien (Zolpidem), Sleep-Driving, and DUI Defense in Cobb County
By George C. Creal, Jr., P.C. — Cobb County and Metro Atlanta DUI Defense Most people who take Ambien expect to fall asleep in bed. Some wake up in a jail cell, holding a DUI ticket, with no memory of leaving the house. That is not an urban legend. It is a documented side effect […]
Police Cannot Sit and Wait: Even a De Minimis Delay After the Mission Ends—or While Waiting for a DUI Officer at a Crash—Can Violate the Fourth Amendment
A traffic stop is a seizure under the Fourth Amendment. So is an accident-scene encounter once officers tell you that you cannot leave. Officers may detain you only long enough to complete the mission that justified the stop or encounter. They must pursue that investigation with reasonable diligence. They cannot stall, make small talk after […]
Georgia DUI Chemical Testing: A result that cannot be questioned is not scientific. It is an article of faith.
When the State charges a Georgia driver with DUI-drugs, DUI-combination, or DUI less safe, the case often turns on a laboratory report. That report may look definitive. It is not. Behind the reported result is a method, an instrument, a library, a set of identification criteria, and a stack of raw data the jury never […]
Gut Fermentation Syndrome and Georgia DUI Defense
Atlanta DUI Lawyer George C. Creal, Jr., P.C. A breath or blood number is not a confession. In rare cases, the alcohol the machine measures was made in the gut—not poured from a glass. Gut fermentation syndrome (also called auto-brewery syndrome) belongs in a serious DUI investigation when the client’s history and the science line […]