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Hillsdale Woman Picks Up Her Third OWI Conviction, Faces Felony Charges

Earlier last month, a Hillsdale woman pleaded guilty to her third OWI offense after she was arrested and charged with a single felony offense as well as six related misdemeanors. According to one local Michigan news source, the woman had two prior OWIs, one in 2007 and one in 2009.

Evidently, on February 6 of this year at around ten in the morning, police noticed a car swerving in and out of its lane on M-99 in Jonesville. The police report indicates that, upon getting pulled over, the woman first provided the officer with her sister’s name. During the ensuing traffic stop, police officers found out that the woman was driving without a valid license and without insurance, was using a license plate not assigned to that vehicle, and had an open container of alcohol in the car.

When police gave the woman a breath-alcohol test, the result came back showing that the woman’s blood-alcohol content was .27, over three times the legal limit in Michigan. After obtaining this result, the police officers then took the woman to get blood drawn so they could verify the results of the breath test.

Just last week, the woman had a formal arraignment, where she pleaded guilty to the felony third-offense OWI in exchange for the prosecution dropping all the misdemeanors. As the charge currently stands, the woman could face up to five years of incarceration at sentencing, which will be held later this month.

Operating While Intoxicated in Michigan

Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) is taken extremely seriously in Michigan. Any time a driver gets behind the wheel with a blood alcohol content of .08 or more, they can be found in violation of the law.

The law gives the prosecution some leeway when proving an OWI offense, but the prosecution must still prove that the driver was intoxicated at the time he or she was arrested.

Proving Intoxication

Proving that a driver was intoxicated isn’t as easy as having him or her blow into a tube and submitting those results to the judge or jury. In fact, under Supreme Court law, there are many requirements that must be met before the results of a test can be submitted at trial and used against the defendant. It is the job of an experienced Michigan criminal defense attorney to ensure that the prosecution crosses all its T’s and dots all its I’s before any evidence is submitted against their client.

Have You Been Arrested for a Michigan OWI Offense?

If you have recently been arrested and charged with an OWI offense, you could be facing serious jail time if convicted. You should therefore do all that you can to make sure that you are well represented throughout the criminal trial process. Attorney Steven Schwartz has years of experience representing Michiganders charged with OWIs and knows what it takes to get his clients’ cases dismissed. To learn more about what you can do to fight your OWI case, contact attorney Schwartz at (240) 930-5019.

Michigan Man Held on $500K Bail Awaiting Charge for First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct, Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog, published February 27, 2015.
Charlotte Woman Sentenced to Fifteen Years for DUI-Related Death, Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog, published January 15, 2015.