WOODLAND, CA – The jury trial for an accused man proceeded here in Yolo County Superior Court Wednesday, with the jury being told the accused was charged with driving under the influence/DUI on Nov. 11, 2022, after he was found sleeping in his car in the bushes of a back road and told to vacate the premises by a deputy because the accused was allegedly trespassing on private property.
After the accused vacated the premises, the same deputy pulled the accused over after he rolled through a stop sign.
The deputy testified they saw the vehicle, pulled over, went up to the accused’s window and told him that he was trespassing on private property. However, the deputy admitted in trial they did not actually know whether or not it was in fact private property.
Deputy Public Defender Joe Gonzalaz described the invasive nature of the stop, including how close the officer leaned over the accused while flashing a bright light in the accused’s eyes along with playing with his gun, clicking it in his holster.
The deputy saw a half empty bottle of alcohol in the accused’s car which he poured out and handed back to the accused. The deputy said at that point he saw no sign of intoxication, he then testified the accused probably shouldn’t be driving but that it “is not (his) problem,” then the deputy left.
After being told that he was trespassing, the accused started to drive away to find another place to sleep for the night. The same deputy followed the accused until he rolled through a stop sign and then pulled the accused over.
The accused was willing to take a breathalyzer test but the deputy didn’t have one so they waited about 40 minutes for someone to get to the scene at which point the accused took a breathalyzer test which was over the legal limit of 0.08.
During DPD Gonzalez’s closing statement, he referenced an expert who testified to the fact that alcohol takes from 15 to 90 minutes to fully absorb which means that there is no way of knowing the accused’s alcohol levels at the time of driving, as the test was done about 40 minutes after any driving occurred.
To break the law the accused also must have intent to break the law, argued DPD Gonzalez, noting that if at the time the alcohol had not been absorbed and the accused felt able to drive until he found a place to sleep then the accused did not intend to break the law.
Deputy District Attorney Aloysius Patchen argued the accused may have had unfortunate circumstances but that he had choices and it is because the accused made the wrong choices that he ended up in the position he did. The choices DDA Patchen described the accused had were sleeping it off, walking or calling someone for help.
However, DPD Gonzalez argued the accused could not have simply slept it off because the officer told him he was trespassing. Even though this was an assumption on the officer’s part, the accused was afraid staying there meant breaking the law.
DPD Gonzalez said that walking would mean walking three miles in the dark along a two-lane road with nowhere to go and believing leaving his car would still be trespassing. There was also no evidence brought forward that the accused had any kind of support system he could have called, or enough money to call a tow service.
The jury will be deliberating this week.
