Duval County, Jacksonville, Florida
Case No.: 2013-CT-11634
Our client was pulled over as a result of his girlfriend honking the horn at an off-duty JSO officer jogging along the side of the road because she thought she knew him. After the officer ran home, armed himself, got into is patrol car and returned to the intersection where our client was last seen, the off-duty officer conducted a traffic stop. The Deputy interrogated our client about his reasons for being in the neighborhood so late at night, and our client gave evasive answers. It turns out that our client just wanted to prolong the evening with his girlfriend so that he could kiss her.
The officer radioed for a DUI unit, and after submitting to field sobriety tests, our client was arrested for a DUI. We filed a motion to suppress based on the fact that the off-duty officer did not have sufficient cause to initiate the traffic stop and the DUI officer did not have sufficient cause to order our client out of his car. Based on the strength of the motion, we were able to negotiate a withholding of adjudication (no conviction) on a reckless driving charge for our client instead of a DUI.
