Will My DUI Case Be Dismissed If The Miranda Rights Were Not Read?

Not in Arizona! Our courts in Arizona, including the court of Appeals and Supreme Court, have basically come to the determination that an officer does not need to read someone their Miranda Rights unless they’re going to ask incriminating questions after the person is arrested. If the officer chooses not to ask any sort of incriminating questions, then the officer does not need to provide Miranda Rights at all. This is odd, considering that Miranda Rights really started in the state of Arizona and it went from the Arizona Courts all the way up to the United States Supreme Court where the United States Supreme Court basically said that the people need to be advised of their Miranda Rights.

Little by little, in the state of Arizona, that has been chipped away, so Miranda Rights are almost meaningless at this point and unfortunately officers don’t need to read them. On occasion, they won’t bother reading them at all or they will indicate in their police report that they read Miranda Rights but they really didn’t. They may even wait until the very last moment and then read someone their Miranda Rights right before they release them.

Unfortunately while cases do get dismissed for violation of people’s Miranda Rights in other states, it does not occur in Arizona. There is really no remedy for not reading someone’s Miranda Rights unless somehow the officers agree that they did not read Miranda Rights and that they asked incriminating questions, then the remedy would be that any statement made without being read their Miranda Rights after they were arrested would be suppressed.

What Happens to the Driving License in a Drug Related DUI?

The thing about being arrested under suspicion of drugs or medications while driving or being in actual physical control is that there is not a test to determine whether someone was truly under the influence or impaired by drugs or medications at the time that they were arrested.

Usually the officer will try to determine reasonable suspicion and probable cause to believe that someone was impaired or had an illicit substance in their system but we don’t have a portable breath test like we do with alcohol DUI cases. If an officer suspects that someone is driving under the influence of drugs or medications, if they’re able to get probable cause, if they are able to arrest the person, they will ask for a blood or urine sample to later test for the presence of drugs or medications.

Different officers handle the license suspension aspect in a few different ways. Some officers will treat it the same as alcohol and basically provide the DUI suspect with the admin per se implied consent affidavit, which tells them that their license is going to be suspended for 90 days simply for being suspected of DUI even though they don’t have any proof and they don’t really know what’s going to show up in the blood or urine tests.

What tends to happen with officers in drug and medication DUI cases is they will allow the person to keep their license and they’re going to hold on to this paperwork to turn in to the Motor Vehicle Division after the blood or urine test come back showing proof that their truly was some drug or medication in the person’s system.

However, some officers will not suspend the person’s license when they are arrested, but months later they will decide that they are tired of hanging on to the paperwork. They don’t know the blood or urine test results yet, they’re just going to send it over to the Motor Vehicle Division so that they will send the DUI suspect a letter telling them that they have received word that law enforcement suspects that they were driving under the influence. Although blood and urine test results are not in yet, the Motor Vehicle Division is going to suspend their license for being suspected of DUI.

This can be challenged. The person is entitled to a hearing on this. If the person does not request a hearing, their license will be suspended for 90 days. For the first 30 days there is no driving at all, but for the last 60 days the person may be eligible to get a restrictive license to drive to and from work, home, school, or counseling. However, if the person ends up getting convicted of a drug or medication DUI, their license will be revoked for 1 year and very likely the 90 days that they will get for being suspected of DUI will not count towards the one year license revocation.

However, if they are later able to deal with the case as an alcohol DUI where the license would be suspended for 90 days, the 90 days that they may have already done for being suspected of DUI would count towards the 90 days that they would get for being convicted of an alcohol DUI, which is why at the very least, if I’m able to do anything, what I try and do is deal with a drug or medication DUI as an alcohol DUI case to hopefully save them their license and maybe get them credit for all the time that they’ve already been suspended simply for being suspected of DUI.

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