Woman arrested for DUI with BAC 0.167 - Attorney wins motion, all charges dismissed without a trial. Download the court records
Lewis Gainor recently won a DUI case in which the driver's blood alcohol content was 0.167, more than twice the legal limit in Illinois. By filing a motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence, he was able to get all charges dismissed.
The client was a woman who was driving in Waukegan near Lake Michigan on November 26, 2003. She was driving late at night after she had been partying with her girlfriends. Police squad cars from the Waukegan Police Department began to follow the woman and pulled her over because they believed she had committed a traffic violation.
The Waukegan police officers immediately recognized that she was an impaired driver, and arrested her for driving under the influence of alcohol. She failed all field sobriety tests and blew a 0.167 at the police station (more than twice the legal limit for drivers on the road in Illinois).
She retained Waukegan lawyer Lewis Gainor to represent her on the DUI case. He reviewed the evidence and recognized that, despite her blood alcohol level of 0.167, he could win the case.
He went to court with his client and filed a motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence. He demanded that the Lake County State's Attorney dismiss the case because the Waukegan police had violated the woman's rights when they pulled her over.
The motion to quash and suppress wen to full evidentiary hearing on June 9, 2005. Lewis Gainor cross-examined the police about their conduct on the night in question. At the end, the judge agreed with Lewis Gainor and granted the motion: all evidence that his client was under the influence of alcohol would be inadmissible at trial. Therefore, the People of the State of Illinois had no case, and had to dismiss all charges.
