The question whether you should take an alcohol breath test if suspected of OUI does not always have a black-and-white answer. [Read more…] about What should I do if I am asked to take a breath test in Maine?
Will Maine see Electronic Monitoring of Domestic Violences (DV) Defendants?
On November 19, 2014, Maine’s NPR News Source (MPBN) published an article about recent experiments with electronic monitoring of domestic violence (DV) defendants in Somerset County, Maine. As Maine has attempted electronic monitoring of domestic violence (DV)defendants in one county, it begs the question whether the State will implement electronic monitoring of domestic violence (DV) defendants across Maine. [Read more…] about Will Maine see Electronic Monitoring of Domestic Violences (DV) Defendants?
November 2014 Maine Marijuana Ballot Initiative Split Vote
This November 2014 election, marijuana initiatives were on the ballot in South Portland and Lewiston. The results from this vote were split between the two cities. Lewiston rejected the marijuana initiative. South Portland approved the marijuana initiative. What does this result mean for these two cities? [Read more…] about November 2014 Maine Marijuana Ballot Initiative Split Vote
Heroin Charges in Maine
Your heroin addiction began innocently. You got into a car accident. You suffered serious injuries to your neck or back and continue to suffer from chronic pain. You see a doctor, who prescribes narcotic pain medication. Over time, the pain pills do not work as well as before, and so you need to take more to get the same effect. Over time, you become dependent, and then addicted to the substance. When the doctor will not prescribe you any more pills, or when the pills become too expensive, the street drug, heroin, sadly became an alternative. Now you are facing heroin charges in Maine and wondering the impacts it will have on your home, family and job. [Read more…] about Heroin Charges in Maine
Assault Charge Dismissed
Assault Charges Can Put Your Job at Risk
Criminal convictions can put your job at risk. Jobs that require their employees to be trustworthy and upstanding citizens might fire someone because of a criminal charge. This was exactly what my client faced when he came to my office. He was almost in a panic that he might lose his job, which carried a great deal of respect, trust, and security. This made it all the more important for me to provide him with an aggressive defense to his case. Ultimately, the criminal charge of assault was dismissed. [Read more…] about Assault Charge Dismissed
Marijuana OUI in Maine
Frank lives in Portland, Maine, where the state permits adults over 21 to possess small amounts of recreational marijuana. Frank goes to visit friends at their Old Port apartment, and he smokes marijuana during the evening. Because Frank does not want to drive drunk, he does not drink any alcohol. Later that evening not being aware of Marijuana OUI in Maine, Frank is confident that he is in the clear to drive home.
While driving home, Frank stops way too short of a stop sign, and then turns too soon so that his back wheels hit the sidewalk. Shortly thereafter, Frank is pulled over by a Portland Police Officer. The officer asks Frank for his license and registration. The officer asks Frank to step outside the car to perform standardized field sobriety tests. The next thing Frank knows is that he is being placed in the police cruiser in handcuffs and being driven to the Cumberland County Jail for an Intoxilyzer 8000 test.
Frank feels indignant. Why is he being arrested for Pot OUI when he did not drink any alcohol? He blows a 0.00 on the alcohol breath test and asks “Can I go home now?” Instead of going home, Frank is asked to undergo a Drug Recognition Exam (DRE) to find out what drug, other than alcohol, might be causing Frank’s impairment. Frank is charged with an OUI because he was impair by pot and was driving.
Frank has run into the problem of Marijuana OUI. Unfortunately for Frank, the State of Maine expects Frank to drive his car while not being impaired by any substance include pot. Just like any other drug, such as alcohol or prescription pills, consuming marijuana can impair your ability to operate a motor vehicle.
This is a fictional story highlighting what one commonly experiences when charged with a Marijuana OUI in Maine. A Marijuana OUI is treated just as seriously as an OUI due to alcohol. If you or someone you know is facing similar charges of pot OUI in Maine, please take a moment and contact The Nielsen Group for your free legal consultation with an experienced Maine OUI defense attorney. Attorney Nielsen will help answer your questions and put your mine at ease.
In this article, let’s get a deeper understanding of Marijuana OUI in Maine and what you need to know if facing criminal charges.
Marijuana OUI in Maine
- OUI is not just for Alcohol
- Marijuana OUI puts your driver’s license at risk
- What to expect without a lawyer
- How a Maine OUI defense attorney can help
- Possible outcomes for a Marijuana OUI in Maine
- Maine Court Process for Marijuana OUI
OUI is not just for Alcohol
Under the Maine statute, the legal limit for alcohol is 0.08 BAC. But what about testing for Marijuana? In the State of Maine,the tools to investigated OUI are:
- Performing a Drug Recognition Exam (DRE) and.
- Securing a urine or blood sample and conducting a drug screen.
Administering DRE exams is more of an art than a science, and getting the results back from a blood toxicology lab can take time.
To help this process, Maine is considering a chemical test that would be used to test for marijuana impairment. The measurement would be 5 nanograms of THC in the blood. THC is the chemical component in marijuana that makes a person high. In other words, while 0.08 of alcohol is legally impaired from alcohol, 5 nanograms of THC would be considered legally impaired from marijuana.
For the State of Maine, the benefit of a standardized measurement for marijuana that would indicate being legally impaired, would be that the same law would apply to everyone, which would be good for law enforcement. And, having a specific test for marijuana would eliminate the uncertainty of a DRE test, which functions as a “best guess.”
Just like the alcohol breathalyzer test, there are potential pitfalls in testing a person’s blood for THC marijuana content. First, how do we know that 5 nanograms is the right amount of THC in the blood to cause impairment? Just like alcohol, different people could process marijuana through their system at different rates. In this way, some people could be more or less impaired with 5 nanograms of THC in their blood, resulting in the law impacting people differently. And, a blood test is a highly invasive search from law enforcement. Currently, a blood test is conducted in certain situations, such as when a person is not an appropriate candidate for a breath test or has given a result of 0.00 (indicating impairment by a means other than alcohol), or when there has been an motor vehicle accident resulting in serious injury or death. If the blood test for marijuana becomes mandatory for all OUI investigations, this could raise issues with potential civil rights violations.
Marijuana OUI Puts your Driver’s License at Risk
In this case, Frank is facing his Maine First OUI Offense. A First Offense OUI in Maine is a Class D misdemeanor. If convicted, Frank could face the following mandatory minimum penalties:
- $500 Fine (plus fees and surcharges)
- 150 day loss of driver’s license (both the BMV and the Court can suspend your driver’s license)
These are just the minimum penalties. For a Class D misdemeanor, the State could impose penalties of up to $2,000.00 in fines and up to 364 days jail time.
For Frank, it was the license suspension that upset him more than anything else. He needs to be able to drive to get to and from work at a local restaurant. If he can’t get to work reliably on time every day, then his employer might let him go.
Without a Lawyer, District Attorney Refuses to Negotiate
Not knowing what to do, Frank went to his Arraignment date alone to see if he could work things out with the District Attorney. To his unhappy surprise, the District Attorney was not interested in hearing anything he had to say. Instead, the District Attorney simply said that the State’s “best” offer was for him to plead guilty as charged and be sentenced to the mandatory minimum penalties.
Frank was in a panic thinking that he might lose his job over this. Frank realized that he needed the assistance of a criminal defense lawyer. Frank did the right thing by calling an experienced criminal defense lawyer to fight the Marijuana OUI charge.
How a Criminal Defense Lawyer can Help
After hiring a criminal defense lawyer, Frank felt much better knowing that he had an aggressive advocate and a legal expert in his corner. Frank learned more about the many ways in which his criminal defense lawyer could defend his case, including:
- Build a defense by attending the BMV Administrative Hearing. Several weeks ago, Frank got a letter in the mail from the Maine Secretary of State. Why was he getting a letter from the Secretary of State when his court date was at the District Court? And so he missed the deadline to request an administrative hearing and his license was suspended. With the assistance of the criminal defense lawyer, the opportunity for a BMV Administrative Hearing was renewed. At this Administrative Hearing, the criminal defense lawyer questions the arresting officer to build a stronger defense for the criminal court.
- Identify any potential problems with the OUI stop. When conducting an OUI stop, law enforcement officers must respect your constitutional civil rights. Any statements or evidence obtained in violation of your constitutional rights are not admissible as evidence at trial.
- Identify any potential problems with the credentials of the arresting officer or DRE examiner. In order for any chemical tests to be considered valid, the officer has to complete certain courses and to sustain any continuing education requirements. If the officer’s certification to perform tests like standardized field sobriety tests or DRE exams have any gaps, then this fact is important to Frank’s defense.
- If there was a blood draw, identify any potential problems with chain of custody or contaminated sample. If the officers took a sample of Frank’s blood, then the blood sample needs to be taken properly by a properly certified person, and the blood sample itself needs to be treated carefully so as to not contaminate the quality of the sample.
Possible Outcomes for Marijuana OUI
With the assistance of criminal defense counsel, Frank’s possible resolutions to his case increased significantly. Here are just a few examples of possible resolutions to Frank’s case.
Resolutions Not Involving a Guilty Plea
- Dismissal– The Marijuana OUI charge could be dismissed outright due to constitutional violations or significant weaknesses in the State’s case. A dismissal is the best possible outcome in a Maine OUI case.
- Filing Agreement– In a filing agreement, the State sets aside the Marijuana OUI charge for a period of time, usually for one year, pending Frank’s good behavior. At the end of a Filing Agreement, the charge usually gets dismissed.
Resolutions Involving a Guilty Plea
Frank’s criminal defense lawyer told him to never plead guilty to a criminal charge without knowing all of the possible consequences he would face. Therefore, it was very important for Frank to understand and be okay with the full impact of any guilty plea he entered.
- Dropdown to a lesser charge– One possible resolution to Frank’s Marijuana OUI could be to enter a guilty plea to a lesser charge. In some instances, the Maine District Attorney can offer that the defendant plead guilty to a less serious charge, such as Driving to Endanger (DTE).
- Deferred Disposition– In this case, a deferred disposition is when Frank enters a guilty plea to Marijuana OUI, and then the State revisits the issue of a sentence at a later date, usually for one year. Frank inst convicted because the sentence has not been imposed. If Frank meets the requirements of his deferred disposition agreement, and he stays out of trouble, then he would get the benefit of the plea agreement, which could be a dismissal of the Marijuana OUI charge.
Maine Court Process for Marijuana OUI
Arraignment
As a first offense OUI for Marijuana, the first court date for Frank would be an Arraignment, where the Judge reads the details of the charge against Frank, and Frank answered to the charge in the form of Not Guilty. If there are any issues pertaining to bail, conditions of bail could also be addressed.
Dispositional Conference
In Portland’s Unified Criminal Docket, Frank’s next court date after Arraignment would be a Dispositional Conference. A Dispositional Conference is where the lawyers meet to negotiate a possible resolution to the case outside of a trial. At the Dispositional Conference, Frank’s criminal defense lawyer would present any arguments about any flaws in the police investigation, as well as any arguments pertaining to the reliability of the blood sample or DRE exam, to show the State that they might not have a strong case against Frank. If after reviewing the State’s offers, Frank does not want to accept any of the plea deals on the table, then the case would progress to pretrial motions, jury selection and trial.
Pretrial Motion Hearings
At the Unified Criminal Docket, pretrial motion hearings are intended to resolve any potential issues in the evidence. If certain evidence was obtained in violation of Frank’s Constitutional rights, the criminal defense lawyer could file an appropriate pretrial motion, such as a Motion to Suppress. After the motion is filed, a Suppression Hearing is held. After the Suppression Hearing, the Judge decides whether any potentially questionable evidence will be kept out of evidence at trial. If successful, this can result in key pieces of the State’s case being kept out of trial.
Trial
At trial, it is the role of District Attorney to attempt to prove that Frank committed Marijuana OUI beyond a reasonable doubt. It is the role of the criminal defense lawyer to reveal reasonable doubt whether Frank had in fact committed a crime. At trial, Frank has the right to confront the State’s witnesses in cross-examination. The outcome of a trial for Marijuana OUI is decided by a jury of Frank’s peers or by a Judge. Most OUI cases do not reach trial stage.
For More Information on Marijuana OUI
If this article on Marijuana OUI in Maine interests you, you might want to explore these related articles:
- Questions to Ask When Hiring an OUI Lawyer
- 10 Mistakes People Make During a DUI Stop
- Drunk Driving Involving Drugs
- New Drunk Driving Law Takes Effect December 2013
- Questions to Ask your OUI Defense Lawyer
- Court Process for Marijuana and Alcohol OUI Laws
- What Are the Maine OUI Laws?
- Standardized Field Sobriety Tests in Maine
What can an officer pull me over for when looking for OUI?
Maybe you had a few dinks while spending the evening out with friends. Before you get in the car to drive home, you might wonder, what can an officer pull me over for when looking for an OUI? This is a great question. The short answer to the question (what can an officer pull me over for when looking for OUI) is that in addition to the fact that an officer can pull you if they have reasonable articulable suspicion that you are in violation of a law or ordinance, when on the lookout for OUI, the police officer also is likely to be looking for “signs of impairment.”
What are Signs of Impairment?”
Signs of Impairment are certain ways you operate your motor vehicle that suggest you might be impaired. A police officer will watch the way you drive your car to identify any specially recognized “signs of impairment.” While the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) recognizes 26 “signs of impairment”, a few examples include:
- Driving too slow/ under the speed limit
- Swerving between the lines of the road
- Crossing over into the oncoming lane
- Making turns that are either too wide or too short
- Stopping too short/ too late of a stop sign or stop light
If the officer observes any signs of impairment in the way you are driving your car, the officer will pull you over to see if you show any physical signs of impairment, including but not limited to:
- Glossy, bloodshot eyes
- Smell of alcohol on your breath
- Reduced hand-to-eye coordination
- Difficulty focusing on intructions
Impairment is Essential to an OUI Charge in Maine
An essential element of an OUI charge in Maine is you were driving a car or other motor vehicle while impaired by an intoxicant, such as:
- alcohol,
- illegal drugs,
- prescription drugs
- a combination of the above
In Maine, you are considered to be “impaired” legally with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 grams or more of alcohol per 210 liters of breath.
Can Signs of Impairment be caused by something other than an intoxicant?
If the police officer finds signs of impairment, this may be sufficient “probable cause” for the officer to conduct a more detailed search, such as asking you to perform standardized field sobriety tests. However, “signs of impairment” alone are not by themselves “proof” of impairment. In fact, “signs of impairment” can be caused by factors other than alcohol and/or drugs:
- A significantly fatigued driver
- A driver looking for a ringing cell phone
- A driver distracted by something on the side of the road
- A driver who afflicted by a medication condition
Our committed legal team is determined to take immediate action to seek a positive outcome for your case. If you or someone you know is charged with OUI in Maine, I encourage you to contact The Nielsen Group for your free legal consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney. We will take the time to answer your questions and to put your mind at ease as we work with you to determine a defense strategy.
It is well worth your time to check out:
If you would like to call us now at (207) 571-8555, we can begin to develop your case strategy.
If you enjoyed the answer to the question (What can an officer pull me over for looking for OUI?), you may also want to read:
- Found Not Guilty: An OUI Case Study
- First Offense OUI
- Second Offense OUI
- Commercial Driver’s License OUI
- Third Offense OUI
What is a CBIP in Maine?
The letters “CBIP” stand for “Certified Batterer’s Intervention Program.” I receive this question (What is a CBIP in Maine?) from clients who are facing domestic violence charges in Maine. Local organizations get “certified” by the State of Maine to offer a Certified Batterer’s Intervention Program.
The State of Maine recognizes that domestic abuse in the home has seriously negative effects on the victims, as well as on any children living in that household. Therefore, it is in the State’s interest to reduce the incidence of domestic abuse and domestic violence. The answer to the question (What is a CBIP in Maine?) is that a CBIP attempts to change the defendant’s behavior in order to prevent the domestic violence defendant from re-offending. In this way, just like the DEEP course is intended to prevent repeat drunk driving offenses, the CBIP attempts to reduce the likelihood that a domestic violence defendant will re-offend.
CBIP in a Sentence in Domestic Violence Cases
When you are convicted of domestic violence in Maine, the penalties can include fines and possibly jail time. Your criminal defense lawyer can argue for a plea bargain that includes a CBIP program. In many instances, the District Attorney will agree to a plea bargain that includes completing a CBIP course within a certain time frame.
If you are successful in completing the required CBIP on time, and you stay out of trouble, then you would get the benefit of the plea bargain. A common benefit is that the domestic violence charge gets dismissed. On the other hand, if you do not complete your CBIP on time, then you would not get the benefit of the plea bargain. In other words, if you do not take your CBIP, then you might end up getting convicted of the domestic violence charge.
CBIP Courses Required Along With Other Treatments
If you are required to take a CBIP course, and depending on the unique facts of the domestic violence case, you could also be required to take part in various related evaluation and/or treatment programs, including:
- Substance Abuse Evaluation
- Substance Abuse Treatment/ Counseling
- Anger Management Evaluation
- Anger Management Treatment/ Counseling
Where can I find a CBIP?
In Maine, there are several local organizations that have been “certified” by the State to offer batterer intervention courses. Here is a short list of organizations in Cumberland County, Maine and York County, Maine:
- Violence No More
- A Different Choice
- Choices
- Opportunity for Change
Usually, people choose take a CBIP program that is located closest to home.
How do I sign up for a CBIP?
You can sign up for a CBIP program by registering with the individual organization offering the CBIP program. For a complete list, please refer to the resource list provided by the State of Maine. For example, to sign up for a CBIP at Violence No More, you would contact the Violence No More program directly.
Our committed legal team is determined to take immediate action to seek a positive outcome for your unique case. If you or someone you know is charged with domestic violence in Maine, I encourage you to contact The Nielsen Group for your free legal consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney. We will take the time to answer your questions and to put your mind at ease as we work with you to determine a defense strategy.
It is well worth your time to check out:
If you would like to call us now at (207) 571-8555, we can begin to develop your case strategy.
If you enjoyed the answer to the question (What is a CBIP in Maine?), you may also want to read:
Does the Court make me a Habitual Offender?
You don’t quite remember how your license got suspended. You never went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) to take care of it. Instead, you were stopped by police a few times for Operating After Suspension. Each time you got a charge, you “took care of it” by going to the Court, entering a guilty plea and paying a fine. The next thing you know, you received a letter in the mail saying that you are going on Habitual Offender status. In this situation, you might be wondering does the Court make me go on Habitual Offender status? [Read more…] about Does the Court make me a Habitual Offender?
Felony Domestic Violence in Maine
Dave had always considered himself to be a law abiding citizen. At the same time, he has had an on-again, off-again relationship with his girlfriend of six years, Kelly. They have one son together. Part of their rocky relationship included a Protection from Abuse civil case. Dave felt bad about the domestic abuse situation. He contacted Kelly to make good with her for the sake of their son. Dave believes strongly that his son should have a good father figure in his life. But, the protection order did not permit him to have any contact with Kelly, and so he was charged with Violating a Protective Order. Since he wanted to show that he was a good citizen, he did not argue with the authorities. He entered a guilty plea to Violating a Protective Order without the assistance of legal counsel. [Read more…] about Felony Domestic Violence in Maine
Please touch base with me about your case. I guarantee you will feel better.