Man Uses His Obesity as a DUI Defense
After actually being convicted of a DUI, Jaimil Choudhry is now pleading guilty to a reduced charge. Before he was sentenced, Choudhry’s DUI defense attorney and the prosecutor decided to dismiss the DUI and instead to let Choudhry plead guilty to reckless driving. Why?
Because Choudhry’s attorney convinced the prosecutor that Choudhry, who is 5’10” and 230 pounds…which is technically “obese”…couldn’t properly perform his field sobriety tests. The defense team maintained that it was nearly impossible for Choudhry to stand on one foot due to his weight.
As we’ve stated many times before, California field sobriety tests are almost worthless when it comes to detecting impairment. Even the most reliable field sobriety tests are only 65-77% accurate, which means that the results of these field sobriety tests are open to attack.
Until law enforcement comes up with a better way to detect impairment, we’ll probably continue to see these types of defenses to California field sobriety tests. And even better when a prosecutor actually recognizes (and acknowledges!) that field sobriety tests are poor indicators of impairment.
