Kansas DUI attorney Jay Norton discusses the criminal charge of a DUI in Kansas, the potential penalties and how to approach the defense of a DUI in court.
AI Transcript:
0:00 Hi, I’m Jay Norton. I want to talk to you about criminal charges that may be filed against you if you are arrested for a DUI. 0:10 As I said before, when you get arrested for a DUI, you get two different things going on at the same time, typically. 0:16 You’ve got the administrative action against your driver’s license. You’ve also got the criminal case that’s filed against you in either a city or county district court. 0:26 criminal charge of DUI is driving under the influence of alcohol and or drugs or any combination of the two. Some different jurisdictionsmay call it an OUI, operating under the influence of alcohol. 0:39 You’ll hear people refer to it as a DWI, drunk driving, driving while intoxicated. In Kansas, typically it’s all the same thing. 0:47 It’s driving under the influence of alcohol and or drugs or any combination of the two. Andthere’s two different ways that a prosecutor can try to prove that a person is DUI and to try to get a conviction for a DUI. 1:02 DUI. One is to prove that you had a blood alcohol content of .08 or greater within three hours of operating the vehicle. 1:12 So a breath test, blood test, possibly a urine test that shows an alcohol content of .08 or greater than .08 that was taken within three hours of you driving a car. 1:22 That is a per se DUI, regardless of whether you were operating the vehicle, completely safely or not.The second way that a prosecutor can try to prove a DUI is to prove that you were driving under the influence of alcohol and or drugs or any combination of the two to the extent that you are rendered 1:42 incapable of safely operating a motor vehicle. So they’ve got to prove that you were unsafe to drive because you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. 1:52 So in a situation where they don’t have a breath test or a blood test or a urine test because someone refused or it got thrown out or they just don’t have it for whatever reason, they can still try to prove that a person was DUI because they were incapable of safely operating their vehicle due to the 2:12 use of alcohol or drugs. And they do that by the way that the person’s driving, the field sobriety test. Test, statements that the person makes, etc. 2:21 Sometimes there are blood, breath, or urine tests that are taken outside of that three hour window. They can still use that, but it’s not a per se DUI. 2:29 They’re trying to prove that you were incapable of safely operating a vehicle because you were. So under the influence of alcohol or drugs, if the prosecutor can meet that burden of proof and you get convicted at in court, convicted means you pled guilty or you went to trial and you got found guilty 2:49 by a judge or jury, then if you are convicted, the judge has to sentence you to somewhere between the maximum and the minimum penalties. 2:57 The maximum and minimum penalties are likely to depend on whether you have any. Prior DUI convictions or diversions in your previous record. 3:11 All DUI cases that ended up in a diversion or a conviction after July 1 of 2001 will count against you. 3:22 So if you had DUI diversions or convictions from the 1990s, the 1980s, those aren’t going to count against you at this point to enhance a subsequent DUI to a second, third, etc. 3:34 But any diversions or convictions for DUI in Kansas or any other state can be used against you to try to enhance a current DUI to be a second, third, or subsequent DUI. 3:48 If it happened after July 1 of 2001. And so for a first time DUI, if you get convicted that it’s a, that’s a class B misdemeanor, the judge can sentence you to a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. 4:05 You’re not likely to get the maximum sentence on a first time DUI, but the minimum that the judge can give you, even if he or she thinks you’re the greatest person in the world and they want to give you every break that they can, they got to give you a underlying jail sentence and then they put you on 4:18 probation for a period of time. And you got to jump through certain hoops to complete that probation. And if you comply with all the terms and conditions of your probation, then you don’t have to actually serve the underlying jail sentence. 4:31 If it’s a second time DUI, that’s a class A misdemeanor. And if you get convicted, the judge has to sentence you to a maximum of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. 4:44 That’s the maximum. Again, that usually isn’t going to get imposed on a second time DUI. But the minimum the judge can give you is 48hoursincustody. 4:54 And if you’re convicted, $1,200 fine and they put you on probation, typically for a year as a result of that conviction. 5:05 And if you violate the probation, then you are subject to coming back to court and serving more time. If it’s a third time DUI, then it depends on whether you’ve had a prior in the last 10 years or not. 5:16 if it’s been more than 10 years since you had a, a DUI conviction. Then it is still a third time misdemeanor, class A misdemeanor. 5:27 But if you’ve had a DUI within the last 10 years from the date that you get this DUI, then it’s a felony. 5:34 And a felony, is always charged in the county court, the district court. They handle all felony cases and it’s a level six felony. 5:46 And that means you have to be sentenced pursuant to the Kansas sentencing guidelines. There are certain maximum and minimum penalties that apply in the case of a felony DUI, and I’ll probably do a separate video on felony DUIs because they’re kind of a whole nother level, and most people are facing misdemeanors 6:05 , but you know, you get a prison sentence, andthat sentence, you know, hopefully doesn’t have to be served, you can hopefully get probation after doing some jail time and some house arrest time but you have a felony conviction on your record, and you have a sentence of prison hanging over your head while 6:28 you’re on probation, so if you violate probation, theoretically, you can get sent to prison. So you know, the stakes are very high, the consequences are very high for all of these DUI cases in the criminal courts, so again, it’s real important that we get all the police reports, the video recordings, 6:47 the audio recordings. All of the, you know, photographs, witness statements, every single thing that there is, all of the information about the, the breath test machine, maintenance logs, calibration logs, testing logs, if there’s a blood test, then we want to subpoena all of the records from the crime 7:03 lab or the KBI. For that blood test, all the underlying documents and data to try to find issues that we can useto either get the case dismissed or whittle it down so that you can go to trial and hopefully find a way Thank you. guilty to prevent the state or the city government from proving you guilty 7:31 beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s something that you need an attorney for really is not something I recommend that you do without an attorney. 7:40 You know, that attorney doesn’t have to be me, but you need to get the best one that you canto try to prevent that from happening if possible. 7:46 These cases can be successfully litigated if you know. What you’re doing and and you review every single thing that there is in the case.