TexasCHLforum.com

Bart wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:As AFCop has testified, he has gotten successful DWI convictions on people who blew significantly less than the legal limit.

They can get a DWI conviction with zero alcohol consumption. If the driver is intoxicated because of any foreign substance, legal or not, "drug" or not, that's enough. Intoxicated is intoxicated.

No argument from me. You reinforce my point.

IF it were me I think I would feel lucky that the alcohol was NOT made an issue of and that the officer was indeed polite about the whole thing. I think I would just write a letter to the judge or the appropriate entity at the municipal court and request deferred adjudication for the ticket.

Karl got a ticket for speeding. It sounds like people here are the ones making alcohol an issue.

As for standing behind your car...I am guessing he wanted several minutes of you on the dashcam? Just in case you looked unsteady. Thus the prompt to "relax". Since he couldn't determine any sign of motor skills being compromised, you got just the speeding ticket.
Please update us on whether or not you could get this ticket dismissed. I hope you are successful. I understand your frustration, but try to be patient with LEO's being suspicious of college age guys. Unfortunately, they spend a lot of their time dealing with some young guys who have more passion for life than common sense.

You can get a very good idea if your speedo is accurate with a GPS unit.
All of them will show speed, and they are said to be very accurate. I have used several different units to compare to my vehicle speedos, and all agreed with each other, with the same differential to the speedo. I have yet to find a speedo more than 2 mph off.
Note that aftermarket speedometer units are mostly GPS-based now.

juggernaut wrote:Karl got a ticket for speeding. It sounds like people here are the ones making alcohol an issue.

Alcohol clouds peoples' judgment and makes them say and do irrational things. And then there's the effect it has on people who actually drink it.

TexasGal wrote:As for standing behind your car...I am guessing he wanted several minutes of you on the dashcam? Just in case you looked unsteady. Thus the prompt to "relax". Since he couldn't determine any sign of motor skills being compromised, you got just the speeding ticket.

That's my guess too. If you had been swaying or unsteady then he could progressed to field sobriety tests, and would've had the tape to help in your conviction.

JNMAR wrote:

lws380 wrote:I'm glad it turned out the way it did and I too think it could have gone a lot worse. Good luck on getting the ticket taken care of.

You mentioned you are younger and in college. From an older guy I would recommend you restrain from drinking and driving and restrain from concealed carry and drinking. If it happens again, you may not be so lucky. Then you will be out tons of money to try and defend yourself. If I drink, I don't drive or carry. I'm not trying to be critical, just offer some advice that might help in the future. Best of luck to you!

Good advice. When carrying, the limit is "impaired" not "intoxicated". If the officer feels that in any way you are impaired, you could go downtown. Lock the gun in the trunk or a lockbox. How much are you willing to spend in your defense? The whole thing is preventable by not drinking at all, or not carrying if you do drink. You may be under the legal limit for driving - good for you, you will NEVER be safe from arrest if you are carrying a gun with any amount of alcohol. Sure, you might win your court case, but how many weeks of pay is it going to take to get there? And if you lose the case after spending all that money? You still lose the license and the gun. At least for me, it's just not worth the trouble. And yes, I love to drink, and do so frequently, but I lock it up before I do.

Griz44 wrote:When carrying, the limit is "impaired" not "intoxicated".

The law I read said "intoxicated" but maybe I missed something. Do you have a cite?