Was Your DWI Arrest Legal?
If you have been stopped for DWI or DUI in Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield or in the surrounding cities of Tarrant County, your police officer will be required to show the legal standard of probable cause has been met in order to justify your DWI arrest.
In Texas, in order for a police officer to make a warrantless DWI arrest, the police must establish that probable cause existed to justify your arrest. Under Texas case law, probable cause exists “when the facts and circumstances within an officer’s personal knowledge and of which he has reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that, more likely than not,” a citizen has committed a crime. In other words, probable cause exists if the officer is able to articulate facts indicating that YOU have or are committing a certain crime.
Although police officer’s can rely upon information from any reliable source to establish probable cause for your DWI arrest, it is important to recognize that the police officer must still establish probable cause as it relates to the elements of the crime of DWI. For instance, placing the citizen behind the wheel of a vehicle is an important element of DWI that must be established by the police officer’s testimony. Although it does not take much evidence to establish that you were operating your vehicle, if there is no evidence that you were operating your vehicle at the time the police arrived (ex. You didn’t admit to driving, you were not behind the wheel, or there were passengers that could have been driving, no independent witnesses putting you near or behind the wheel at or near the time of the alleged driving), the police will be unable to establish probable cause for a DWI arrest (although they would still have probable cause to establish an arrest for Public Intoxication (PI)). If you have been arrested and charged with a DWI or DUI in Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield or in the surrounding cities of Tarrant County, it is important to hire an experienced DWI lawyer that will take the time to carefully review both the police report and the video to determine if there was sufficient probable cause to justify your DWI arrest.
At The Hampton Law Firm, you will find a Fort Worth DWI law practice that is different from other Fort Worth DWI lawyers because we provide the citizens of Tarrant County with a DWI trial team approach that evens the odds and provides the best possible DWI defense for your DWI case. Call The Hampton Law Firm now for a free consultation.
