Harleton, TX DWI Law Firms & Lawyers

Yes, you can still be charged. If the arrest was only 5 days ago, the most pressing issue is the ALR. If the officer confiscated your DL, he will have sent that paperwork to Austin. So, the clock is ticking. You have only 15 days from the date of arrest to contest the 6 month suspension of your license. I specialize in DWI cases, and can tell you that I handle the ALR on every single DWI case I'm hired on, provided I am hired within that 15 day window. It gives us an opportunity to fight to prevent the suspension. Also, it's our only real opportunity to get live testimony from an officer prior to trial.  As for the arrest, here's what will happen. The hospital should have drawn the blood. It will then be sent to a lab to be tested for the BAC level. Once the report is issued it will be sent to the agency that requested the testing (the arresting agency and/or the DA's office). If the BAC is at or above a .08 either a warrant or a summons will issue for your appearance on the case.  Right now there's a pretty significant backlog for blood testing at the labs. So, it could take up to a couple of months before you hear anything back on the blood. But, don't wait. Again, you can still fight the ALR; and it's an important piece of the discovery process in a DWI defense.

A jury can convict you if the State can prove you were intoxicated by "reason of the introduction of alcohol or drugs or any combination thereof." So, the short answer is yes, they can get you for the synthetic. There are issues with synthetic in terms of associating it with the illegal drugs enumerated in the H&S Code, though. Beyond the classification issue, there might be an issue with respect to the toxicological effects smoking synthetic would have on you 4 hours after smoking, if they even have evidence to prove that. The DRE exam may be a red herring; or it may be reduced to that. The DRE protocol is supposed to allow the cops to determine which "drug class" your alleged intoxication may stem from. I don't believe synthetic is among the drugs that are included in the DRE protocol. Synthetic isn't MJ; so I wouldn't allow them to testify that the signs and symptoms observed with respect to an MJ investigation are the same as those that should be observed when a person has smoked an entirely different-non-natural, substance. So, there are a lot of issues that can be explored in your defense. If it's your 3rd, you probably already know you're looking at 2-10 years in prison. And, it sounds like this one could be beatable. Hire a good lawyer well-versed in DWI.