Divorce brings out worst in human beings. When it comes to the heat of a custody battle or a fight over assets, there is no rational decision-making, and often emotions are allowed to guide the decision. The disturbing trend in Atlanta is that these family disputes are being bleeding to the criminal court. It is known as the Divorce DUI, a strategic act in which one of the spouses calls the police claiming that the other is operating on a restricted basis and hopes he/she is arrested so that they can lose credibility in court.
In case of a bitter divorce, you must realize that your ex-spouse who is bitter might be monitoring you more than the police. In case one of you is handcuffed after what appeared to be a typical traffic stop, you may also be a victim of a set-up. You must have an Atlanta DUI Lawyer that is able to see the forest through the trees in this high stakes environment.
The situation is usually the same. You go out with friends and have dinner to relieve your stress. You take one or two glasses of wine during a meal. You are quite all right to drive. But your former wife is aware of your timetable. They can tell your whereabouts, or they have a tracker on your phone or automobile. On your way out of the restaurant, they dial 911. They inform the sender that there is a drunken driver that is swerving everywhere on the road with your vehicle.
All of a sudden, one of the policemen is trailing you. They do not want to stop you because of a general traffic violation, they are hunting grounds to stop you. They anticipate that you will hit the white line with your tire, or two seconds late signaled a U-turn. The blue lights are activated the moment they notice a small misdemeanor.
The officer comes up to your window with a preconceived idea by the dispatch call. They are awaiting an inebriate. The faintest scent of wine of their dinner triggers their confirmation bias. Soon you are being requested to get out of the car.
The purpose of this establishment is obvious. A DUI arrest is a nuclear weapon in a custody battle. Although not convicted, the mugshot can be utilized alone at a temporary hearing and suspend your visitation privileges or order supervised visits. Your ex wants the arrest to reflect negatively on you as a parent and it will provide him/her with a complete upper hand during the divorce process.
There is, however, a legal weakness with this strategy. An anonymous or unconfirmed tip cannot be enough to pull you over unless there is a threat to the safety of the population. In the case that the officer himself did not witness any dangerous driving, but rather chose to pull you over because of an ill-intentioned phone call, the stop can also be considered unlawful.
To demonstrate this, one would need an Atlanta DUI Attorney who is familiar with the process of investigating the history of the arrest. The position of a general lawyer may involve a simple look at the result of the breathalyser. The logs of the 911 calls will be subpoenaed by a specialist. They shall listen to the recording. Was the caller anonymous or did he/she identify himself? Was it that they lied what they saw? Was the driving behavior verified on its own by the officer or was it entirely on the testimony of a prejudiced third party?
Here James Yeargan stands out. Yeargan is a former prosecutor who knows how probable cause works, and is known as DUI Jim. He is aware that the act of a traffic stop through the lie is a risk to your Fourth Amendment rights. In case he can demonstrate that the stop was pretextual, meaning that it was only started due to a tip provided by a biased party and no longer to be done due to bad driving, then the whole case may be dismissed.
In such instances, James Yeargan realizes that you are fighting two fronts in criminal court and family court. He understands that it is necessary to clear your name in the DUI case to save your relationship with your children. He does not simply defend the accusation; he goes to the root of that accusation.
In case you suspect that your DUI arrest was engineered by an enraged spouse or a partner, then do not take it as an ordinary road case. It is a pit and you must have a legal team that is familiar with how to break it. You need someone on your side that will bring to light the manipulation and will keep the police as puppets to your divorce.
Having an outstanding experience and background in prosecution, James Yeargan is able to find out the truth. He will be able to make your way through this dangerous legal terrain and struggle to keep an ill-intentioned tip off the mishandling of your future.
