Tag: refusal

Felony OWI Amended to Public Intoxication

Follow the process.  That’s what the drunk driving defense lawyers at GRL Law do with every OWI. We meticulously sift through every bit of evidence in a case.  Every second of video.  Each word of an officer’s narrative.  All in search of a defense.   And when we find that gold nugget?  It can change everything. Take a recent felony OWI matter in southern Iowa.  The Iowa State Patrol claimed our client “refused” a urine test for marijuana metabolites. The stakes were definitely high.  Felony OWI convictions can result in lengthy prison or jail sentences and long license revocations. By applying […]

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Marijuana OWI Dismissed

GRL recently secured another NFG when the Bremer County Attorney dismissed a marijuana OWI on the eve of trial. While there were a number of problems with the state’s case, the one that tipped the scales the most was the officer’s plain view observation of “marijuana bud” in the passenger compartment.  That turned out to be a piece of Lactuca sativa otherwise know as . . . Wait for it. Lettuce. That’s right.  He seized that other green leafy substance popular with salads and wraps.  And framed the rest of his investigation from the standpoint of marijuana impairment. At least he […]

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2 NFG’s in 1 Day

GRL was busy yesterday doing what we enjoy most – Jury trials.  Bobby Rehkemper was in Ames, Story County and Matt Lindholm was in Corning, Adams County.  Both client’s were charged with operating while intoxicated accusations and declined to submit to the evidentiary breath test at the station.  The prosecution claimed that the defendant’s demonstrated observable impairment after drinking which was hotly contested.  Bobby and Matt aggressively defended each case and were successful in securing GRL’s most recent batch of NFG’s!  Cheers to the Daily NFG Double!

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NFG! First Three-Word Verdict of 2023 in Guthrie County OWI

A unanimous Guthrie County jury returned the first NFG of the year yesterday following a two-day OWI trial. It took just under 30 minutes for the jury to say GRL’s client was not guilty. Two seasoned Guthrie County Sheriff deputies testified that they believed the driver was intoxicated based on their training and experience. And the State argued the jury could consider his eventual refusal to submit to breath testing was a tacit admission that he would blow over the legal limit. As you have come to expect, GRL took another very difficult defense case and turned it on its […]

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State Amends OWI to Public Intoxication on Eve of Trial

The state recently moved to amend a charge to public intoxication from OWI in a North Iowa case involving a test refusal. Why the amendment?  The drunk driving attorneys at GRL Law were prepared to show that our client, a lifetime smoker, never refused testing.   Instead, the officer deemed her to have refused after a third incomplete DataMaster DMT test.  The multiple incomplete tests were due to our client’s inability to provide an acceptable breath sample meeting all of the test parameters.  Nothing more. The officer could have instead requested that she submit a sample of blood or urine.  Those […]

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OWI Amended to Public Intoxication Preserves CDL

Another result of our relentless pretrial discovery efforts is now on display in Jasper County.  After painstakingly reviewing every word of the implied consent video, we discovered that our client asked for an attorney.  The officer did not honor this request, but instead requested a breath sample for testing on the DataMaster DMT.  Our client refused. Iowa law provides a limited right to consult with a lawyer while being detained by police.   The prosecutor amended the OWI because the breath test refusal would not be admissible due to the violation. The result?  A simple misdemeanor.  No jail.  A fine of […]

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Second Offense OWI Amended Following Suppression of Test Refusal

To the impaired driving defense attorneys at GRL Law, the name of the game is relentless pretrial discovery.  It’s what we do.  Essentially, if there’s a defense, then we’ll find it and leverage it to produce uncommon results. A recent OWI Second Offense charge in western Iowa provides a perfect example of this approach.  After exhaustively reviewing 911 calls, dispatch logs, the dash camera and body camera videos and cross-examining the officer at the DOT hearing (yes, we vigorously defend DOT revocations at hearing), we discovered: The basis for the stop, a “verbal domestic,” was questionable; The officer had no […]

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GRL Wins DOT and Saves CDL

Iowa provides a limited statutory right to speak with a family member or attorney before submitting to breath testing.  Most of the time, the driver must first trigger the right by asking for a phone call. In this case, our client told the officer he had an out-of-state CDL.  He asked whether implied consent would affect his commercial driver’s license.  When the officer said that he couldn’t answer that question, our client replied that he would wait for the lawyer to arrive. The officer immediately requested a breath specimen.  Our client refused. GRL Law recently appealed the one year revocation […]

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Iowa Supreme Court to Decide Whether Refusal of a Breath Test May Be Used Against a Person as Evidence of Guilt at Trial in an Operating While Intoxicated Case

Recently, GRL Law attorney Grant Gangestad argued the case of State v. Kilby before the Iowa Supreme Court.  The case dealt with an Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) charge.  The client’s charge stemmed from a fender bender in a parking lot.  Officers were called to the scene and began an investigation into possible intoxication of the driver.  The officers conducted Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and requested a preliminary breath test, which the client refused.  She was arrested and transported to the station.  At the station, officers read her an advisory which requested a breath test; if validly consented to, this breath […]

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