Arizona DUI Process
The Arizona DUI process will vary from case to case. Details such as location of arrest, location of the court, and whether you were charged with a misdemeanor or a felony DUI will all play a role in the process of your DUI case. Regardless, one of the experienced attorneys at Alcock & Associates, P.C. will help guide you through this process so you completely understand your rights, any potential risks you face, and the likelihood of acquittal at trial.
Please use the following as an informational guide to assist in educating yourself about the DUI process.
The Stop & Arrest Process
The Traffic Stop
A DUI arrest begins with the traffic stop. A police officer only needs “reasonable suspicion” of a traffic offense to pull a driver over. Generally, minor traffic violations such as speeding, running a red light, disregarding traffic signs, swerving through lanes, and/or driving with your headlights off are valid grounds for a police officer to perform a traffic stop. You should respectfully submit to an officer’s request to provide your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance during the stop. However, since most evidence later used against you is gathered during the initial traffic stop, Alcock & Associates, P.C. recommends you exercise your right to remain silent and contact one of our DUI defense attorneys before answering a police officer’s questions and before consenting to any field sobriety test.
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The Arrest
An arrest can occur for either a felony or a misdemeanor traffic offense. For a felony crime, police must have "probable cause" to make an arrest. Probable cause requires that an officer have objective, reliable information that the person has committed this offense. The standard for arrest for a misdemeanor crime is reasonable suspicion. This is a lower standard which involves the subjectivity of the arresting officer. A misdemeanor arrest can be made if the officer believes there is a warrant or if a crime occurred in the presence of the arresting officer.
It is important for a motorist to remember what the arresting officer did and said during the course of the arrest. For example, an officer’s failure to read Miranda rights may be grounds to dismiss the case or stop the prosecutor from introducing certain evidence. Our DUI defense attorneys are often able to use an arresting officer’s failure to comply with all of the standard forms of conduct to the client’s advantage.
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The Booking
Following an arrest, a motorist will be booked at the jail, or at a transitional facility, and will usually be released shortly afterwards. It is not typical to go to jail following a DUI arrest. The term “booked” represents the procedure of having an officer formally input your biographical and personal information into the police database. Additionally, the booking may involve a lawful search conducted by police with or without consent of the motorist, getting fingerprinted, and getting a photograph taken.
If someone you know has been arrested for DUI and has not been released, you can acquire booking information by calling the jail where that person is being detained. You will need information such as the inmate's booking number, his/her date of birth, and full name. The jail should release information on the charges, any future court dates, the arresting agency, and the bail amount.
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Charges Following Arrest
Following your booking and release from detention, the police will likely have gathered all the information necessary to submit the charges to the prosecuting agency. If you consented to a chemical blood test, they may have to wait for days, weeks, or even months for a lab to process and return the blood alcohol concentration results before submitting your charges.
Your charges will be filed once law enforcement has gathered all the relevant information they need to support a case against you. If you were arrested for a misdemeanor DUI, the officer will give you a citation (usually a pink slip of paper) with a court date on it. You will be required to appear in a county justice court or a city municipal court on the date on the back of your ticket.
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Court Proceedings
Since every case is unique, one of our DUI defense attorneys can carefully go over all of the details of your case to help you understand what happened and what is going to happen. A typical misdemeanor DUI timeline includes the following:
The Arraignment
This is the date found on your citation or ticket, which requires your first appearance before a judge following a DUI arrest. This is the time where you are formally charged and your bail (if any) is set. If you were charged with a misdemeanor DUI and have hired a DUI defense lawyer, you may not need to attend this hearing. By pleading "not guilty," you preserve the right to a jury trial, the right to attack any constitutional violations during the investigation or arrest, the right to confront the arresting officer, and the right to negotiate a plea. If you plead "guilty," you waive those rights. Pleading not guilty at this hearing will not hurt your case and is always recommended.
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The Preliminary Hearing
This is the next step in your Arizona DUI case. Here, the judge will decide whether there is enough evidence, “probable cause”, to support the DUI you are charged with. At the preliminary hearing, bail can be adjusted or imposed if it has not been determined at this point.
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The Pretrial conference
A pretrial conference is an opportunity for your attorney to get documents from the prosecutor, file pretrial motions, negotiate for a plea agreement, and potentially enter a plea. If a person does not enter a guilty plea, and your case is not dismissed by the prosecutor, the court will eventually set your matter for trial, which may be advantageous if the plea bargain or “deal” offered by prosecution is less than desirable.
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Trial management conference
Shortly before the DUI trial, the judge will schedule a final management conference to discuss all pretrial motions and to ensure that the parties are ready to proceed to trial.
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Trial
This is the final step in the Arizona DUI process. A DUI trial typically lasts about three days. As a defendant in Arizona, you have the absolute right to a jury trial. However, you can waive this right and have the trial in front of the judge. This is called a bench trial. An experienced criminal defense attorney can help you with the decision to proceed with a jury trial or a bench trial.
The first step of a jury trial is to select a jury. A defendant is supposed to be tried in front of a “jury of peers” so any potential jury pool should include representation from a broad range of the social spectrum. During jury selection, the judge and lawyers can ask potential jurors questions to reveal potential biases, preconceived notions, and/or prejudices. Selecting the right jurors is crucial to a favorable outcome in a DUI case, and the attorneys at Alcock & Associates, P.C. are capable and qualified in this area.
After the Jury has been selected, the State will proceed with opening statements. The opening statement is not evidence. Instead, this is an opportunity for the prosecuting attorney to inform the jury about what they will hear throughout the trial. After the State’s opening statement, the defense attorney can choose to make an opening statement or choose to reserve the opening statement for later on in the trial.
After opening statements, the prosecuting attorney will put forward all of the evidence that they have to prove their case. Evidence can be in the form of officer testimony, civilian witness testimony, expert testimony, and the presentation of physical evidence (pictures, graphs, charts, etc…)
After the State has rested, or finished their case, defense then has the option of providing a case to the jury. It is common for a defense attorney not to provide a case and then argue insufficiency of evidence. This argument explains to the jury that the State must prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt. Then, the defense carefully points out that the evidence provided to the jury by the prosecutor is insufficient to support a guilty verdict. On the other hand, a defense attorney could also present a case to the jury. Just like the State’s case, a defense attorney can provide witnesses and crucial evidence to the jury.
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Jury Deliberation
After the prosecutor and the defense attorney have finished providing all of the evidence to the jury, the jurors must then deliberate to reach a verdict. There is no way to measure how long a jury will deliberate on any given case. A jury may deliberate for minutes or days. Once the jury has reached a unanimous verdict, the judge’s clerk will read the verdict in open court. If the verdict is not guilty, all bonds will be exonerated and the accused will have been acquitted of the charges. If the jury says that they can not reach a unanimous decision, the court will declare a mistrial and set a new trial date. If the verdict is guilty, defense will proceed to sentencing.
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Sentencing
A sentence is generally issued immediately after a defendant either enters a misdemeanor plea agreement or is convicted at trial for a misdemeanor. A sentencing for a felony conviction will usually take place approximately 30 days after the conviction or guilty plea. Remember the trial judge is at liberty to consider a broad range of factors which may lead to a harsher sentence than the minimum standard. At the same time, judges are at liberty to consider positive factors such as community standing, first time offender status, community support, family support, etc... which may diminish the severity of a sentence. At Alcock & Associates, P.C., our attorneys will do everything in their power to ensure that all favorable factors which may lead to a lighter sentence are presented to a trial judge before the decision is issued.
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Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) Process
In a DUI case, there will be an MVD hearing completely separate from your criminal case. The MVD hearing concerns suspension of your license, which in turn can affect practically every aspect of your life, from earning your livelihood to getting yourself and your family members around town.
M.V.D. suspensions and hearings will vary depending on your actions leading up to and during your DUI stop/arrest, as well as your prior driving history. Normally you have the right to an M.V.D. hearing following suspension of your license. Often, however, you are required to request the hearing within fifteen days following your DUI arrest. Failure to request a hearing within this time frame could result in the loss of your right to an MVD hearing and automatic suspension of your license.
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