Anyone can be arrested for drunk driving in Wisconsin. It does not matter what a person does for a living or how much money a person makes. If someone is suspected of driving while under the influence of alcohol the driver may be stopped, questioned and arrested on a drunk driving charge.
A state lawmaker learned this lesson the hard way when he himself was arrested. The lawmaker was pulled over several days before Halloween due to an alleged traffic infraction. During the traffic stop the officer asked the state representative to engage in a field sobriety test, which he failed. The lawmaker also admitted to drinking and refused a breathalyzer test. As a result of the traffic stop, the lawmaker was arrested and taken into police custody.
Previous posts on this Sheboygan DUI defense law blog have discussed how evidence from field sobriety tests and breathalyzer tests can be used against an individual who is charged with a drunk driving crime. In this case, the individual suspected of drunk driving did not take a breathalyzer test, which under Wisconsin's laws all drivers implicitly agree to take if they are stopped. Should this individual choose to defend himself against the charges that were brought against him he will have to overcome the evidence discussed in this post to clear his name.
Drunk driving charges can be lodged against anyone. As seen through this news story, even the state lawmakers who impose drunk driving laws on others are not above suspicion of drunk driving by law enforcement officials. However, anyone who is charged with an alcohol-related driving crime may utilize many criminal defense techniques in order to lessen the severity of the charges. In some situations, it may even be possible to get the charges dropped altogether.