No Refusal weekend May 22-24, 2009

With the upcoming Memorial Day Holiday upon us, more citizens will have their rights completely violated in forced blood draws than ever before.

I was talking to my wife the other day about the upcoming "no refusal" weekend. We talked about advising our older children to stay at their respective apartments and not leave them in the evening hours to go out for fear of being illegally stopped, falsely being accused of driving while intoxicated and arrested and worst of all having their blood forcefully ripped out of their arm so that they may be forced to give evidence against themselves.

How far have we gotten away from the rights vested in the United States Constitution and the Amendments, when we allow our citizens to have their blood forcefully taken from them and have become fearful of traveling because we are afraid of being falsely accused?

It is a sad commentary that our society has sunk to the point of allowing innocent people to be falsely accused and then forced to prove their innocence in one of the most personally vile manners conceivable.

This weekend, if you are stopped by the police, and refuse to give a specimen of your blood breath or urine, that will be enough probable cause in and of itself for the police to request a warrant from a judge standing by for the express purpose of signing the warrants, to strap you down and forcefully take your blood. And you won't be going to the hospital to do this. You won't be going to a clinic. You will be doing this at the jail, where I have been told, the nurse will not be wearing gloves and there is no sink for hands to be washed.

As one of the only attorney's to take these cases to trial in Montgomery County, Texas, I know from experience that these cases are flawed and the procedures used violate your civil rights.

You may be subjected to a forced blood draw, but you still have rights. You have the right to have an independent draw taken, if you have an attorney that can do such a thing soon after you were arrested.

You must contact your attorney or have a family member do the same, and your attorney will arrange to have your blood drawn and preserved for an independent test.

There are many reasons that this is necessary. If the police do not draw the correct amount of blood and do not follow the procedures to draw the blood properly, you may be able to have the blood suppressed which means that the government would not be able to prosecute you with that evidence.

Blood cases are very susceptible to attacks, if your attorney knows what they are doing and has experience in this area.