OWI Third Offense – Dismissed

A third OWI was dismissed after Grieve Law successfully argued to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals that the officer did not have legal authority to execute a traffic stop.

The Charges

A motorcycle sped past a police officer and eventually had a fatal accident with the officer in pursuit. Two other motorcycles had been seen, briefly, with the motorcycle involved in the crash and the police officer instructed dispatch to have the additional motorcycles stopped and questioned as to what they knew about the driver involved in the accident. During his interaction with the other two motorcycle drivers, the officer believed the drivers may be impaired and eventually arrested them for OWI offenses.

The Defense

One of the drivers hired Grieve Law to fight their OWI charge. Their attorney filed a motion challenging the police stopping the driver as there was neither reasonable suspicion of a possible violation nor probable cause of an actual violation. The Court agreed that there was neither reasonable suspicion nor probable cause. However, the Court allowed the State to argue that the officer was allowed to stop the vehicle as part of the investigation of the accident. The State argued that the officer was exercising his community caretaker duties with the stop of our client. The Court denied the motion we filed and the client was convicted of an OWI 3rd offense.

Neither our client nor their attorney was satisfied with the decision of the Court and Grieve Law appealed the decision of the judge and requested the Wisconsin Court of Appeals review the decision. Our attorney challenged the judge’s basis for their decision and argued that there were other means to obtain the information sought from our client and there is no legal basis to pull over a potential witness of an accident.

The Results

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals agreed with our attorney. They held that there was no legal basis for the officer to stop the motorcycle driven by our client and that community caretaker duties did not apply to this situation. The decision suppressed all evidence that was used against our client and the State had no choice but to move the court to dismiss all charges.

At Grieve Law, we fight for our clients and sometimes that fight does not stop just because the court enters a conviction.