New blood warrant application created for marijuana DUIs in WA

marijuanaWith the legalization of Marijuana in Washington state, law enforcement agencies are now facing new challenges that really hadn’t occurred with traditional alcohol related DUI cases.  One such challenge is securing timely evidence in the form of a specific marijuana level to use in the prosecution of marijuana DUI cases. This occurs via a blood test and can be time consuming when the DUI investigation is all said and done.

Traditionally if a driver is arrested for a marijuana DUI. The arresting officer has to take the driver back to the police station. Manually fill out a form, then call a Judge, and read the probable cause statement over the phone and request a search warrant for the blood. In all honesty this is not that difficult however law enforcement is always looking for better ways to secure evidence against suspects. And that’s where the new blood warrant application system comes in.

From what I hear this will be a first of it’s kind in the country. It will all be electronic and should expedite the process much much quicker in securing these blood warrants to use in DUI cases. Now instead of manually filling out a form, calling a Judge, reading the probable cause statement  The law enforcement officer will log onto a website and enter all the relevant data and send it directly to a Judge. This will all happen in real time and potentially could be done on the way to the hospital or even there I suspect.

The concern for law enforcement is going the traditional route with search warrants for blood is that it was too time consuming. And the evidence was dissipating from the suspects system.  Whether it was alcohol or marijuana, law enforcement and Prosecutors wanted a higher level and waiting a couple hours ran the risk of that specific level decreasing. Now with this new system that won’t be as much of a problem for DUI cases in King County and elsewhere in Washington state.

If you’re interested in reading more about “Elias” the name of this new application process click here.

About the author: Matthew Leyba is a DUI lawyer in Seattle, WA. He has been named one of Seattle’s best DUI Lawyers by the Seattle Met Magazine. Additionally he is rated a perfect 10 out of 10 by Avvo.com, a lawyer rating service.

New WA case rules in the favor of defense when it comes to search warrants and DUIs

A recent case came out from the Washington State Court of Appeals Division 1 that *shocker* is in favor of the defense. The case is State v. Martines. From my reading of the opinion this potentially could be a big deal that may result in blood test DUI cases that came from a search warrant being suppressed. It’s more of a technical issue that was raised for the first time on appeal, but I have to tell you it’s pretty dang smart and kudos to the appellate attorneys that raised it.

Essentially the court held the extraction of blood from a drunk driving suspect is a search. This isn’t news and everybody should know this by now. However testing the blood sample is a second search. The Could held it is distinct from the initial extraction because its purpose is to examine the personal information the blood contains. Therefore the State may not conduct tests on a lawfully procured blood sample without first obtaining a warrant that authorizes testing and specifies the types of evidence for which the sample may be tested.

Like I said this is a technical issue that can easily be fixed. In fact I suspect every Prosecutor’s office is checking their search warrants and adding the additional language that any blood test can be analyzed for alcohol, marijuana, drugs, etc. If the search warrant didn’t contain that language initially I’m not sure what will happen on the Prosecutors side. I know the Defense will be challenging the blood test results, but if the Court simply allows the search warrant to be amended and the remaining vials of blood to be retested for the specific substance than I guess that would be an easy fix. But like I said I have no idea what Prosecutors are planning.

Anyway it should be interesting to see how things unfold in the near future. Nowadays anytime a person refuses a breath test or if they get arrested for a Marijuana DUI then they are getting a blood test. Thanks to the Supreme Court a search warrant is now required anytime there is a blood test. So like I said before this could affect a lot of cases in Washington State.

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About the author: Matthew Leyba is a DUI lawyer in Seattle, WA. He has been named as one of the best DUI lawyers in Seattle by the Seattle Met Magazine, and Super Lawyers Magazine, an honor less than 2.5% of all lawyers receive in their practice area. Additionally he is rated as a 10 out of 10 by Avvo.com, a lawyer rating service.