DWI Charges Dismissed, Accused Wants Police Investigated - Sparrow Law Firm

A former state lawmaker is planning to ask federal and state authorities to investigate law enforcement regarding his experience with a traffic stop. The one-time legislator was pulled over in December 2011 by an officer from the Concord Police Department. Concord is in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, just outside of Charlotte.

The incident in question started when the officer pulled the man over initially for expired tags. A license check revealed that the man’s driver’s license had been revoked. The officer questioned the man for a minute or two, then asked him to submit to a breath test and field sobriety tests. The man refused, and the officer put him under arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Blood tests later showed the man had a 0.01 percent blood alcohol content. Further testing for drugs revealed nothing. Those two pieces of evidence led the prosecutor to dismiss the case — some 17 months after the arrest.

Those are the basic facts. The story gets more confusing when you bring in the police report and the dashcam video from the stop.

On the dashcam, when the officer found the revocation information, he told the driver he had enough to arrest him. The man explained that he had not been notified about his license being revoked. He added that he had two tickets, but he had paid them both in person.

At this point on the video, the police officer asks if the man had been drinking. The man replied he had not, added that he had been a cop and was now a lawyer and asked the officer for a ticket. He repeated he did not get a notice about the revocation. The officer follows up by asking for the alcohol tests.

Things go a little differently in the police report. We’ll get into that in our next post.

Source: WSOCTV, “DWI charges dismissed against former state Rep. Nick Mackey,” May 20, 2013