Waukee, Dallas County, Iowa. GRL Law’s client was facing an operating while intoxicated, second offense following an arrest by the Waukee Police Department. An OWI Second Offense requires a mandatory minimum seven days in jail and a $1,875 fine and is punishable by up to two years in prison. Thankfully, GRL Law requires all of our attorneys to review the entirety of the videos associated with an investigation and arrest and we uncovered that prior to our client agreeing to take the breath test, the arresting officer inadvertently provided him with incorrect information. The officer informed GRL Law’s client that because he received a deferred judgment on his prior offense, it would not count as a prior conviction to make the new charge a second offense. Iowa law however counts even prior deferred judgments as prior convictions for enhancement purposes. As a result of the incorrect information being given to our client, the prosecution agreed to exclude the breath test result and resolve the case with a simple misdemeanor public intoxication offense. Driving privileges were also spared.
