Broward DUI Lawyer Blog

Mlive is reporting that Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera will go to trial on a charge of DUI in Fort Pierce after a prosecutor asked for a continuance.

As our Broward DUI Lawyer Blog reported on earlier this year, Cabrera was arrested and charged with DUI in Fort Pierce last February after police responded to his Land Rover that was pulled off to the side of the road.

Officers reported that he was drinking Scotch inside the vehicle when officers arrived. Officers didn't see him driving the vehicle when they saw him drinking, so after a driver's license administrative hearing, his license was returned.

Many people will question how a person charged with DUI in West Palm Beach could get a victory in a related court hearing. Simple -- it's a different type of hearing altogether. A driver's license administrative hearing must be requested within 10 days of a DUI arrest, otherwise, you can kiss your license goodbye.

Administrative hearings are designed to look at the actions of police and whether they followed specific procedures and protocols when conducting the stop and how they interacted with the driver. An experienced West Palm Beach DUI defense lawyer is able to handle both the administrative hearing and the DUI defense case.

How these differ is a magistrate judge will determine if police followed the rules and if there is enough evidence to take away a person's license. In a DUI case, the state has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable double that the person was under the influence of alcohol or drugs and drove a vehicle while in that intoxicated state. There are many more factors in play in that scenario.

In Cabrera's case, he was arrested in February after police saw his vehicle disabled on the side of the road. He was more than 100 miles from Cabrera's house in South Florida and from the team's spring training home in Lakeland, between Tampa and Orlando.

Cabrera allegedly refused a breath test that could have determined his blood-alcohol level. He was charged with DUI, resisting an officer without violence, a misdemeanor, and a citation for possession of an open container. Another charge of resisting was dropped a month after the arrest.

Cabrera was previously scheduled to go to trial at the end of November, but attorneys are now anticipating a week-long trial, rather than the previously scheduled two-day trial. Cabrera's attorneys were prepared to start, but prosecutors requested, and were granted, a continuance.

Jury selection is scheduled for one day and the trial is expected to last the four following days in mid-January, Mlive reports.

As stated earlier, a driver's license administrative hearing is designed to determine whether the police should have investigated for DUI and take away a person's license. As the report states, a judge reinstated Cabrera's license after ruling law enforcement didn't have probable cause to arrest him.

While these hearings are separate and the result of one has no bearing on the other, an experienced lawyer who wins an administrative license hearing could use some of those facts in defense of the DUI charge. Proving police didn't have reason to investigate could convince a jury the defendant should be found not guilty of the criminal charges.