ZERO TOLERANCE??

DUI Case Was Dropped, But Driver Wants to Sue

Bradenton, FL - July 3, 2008  -  If there is a lucky four-digit lottery number in DUI cases, it is this: a 0.000 on the blood-alcohol breath test.

Gary Shuchat hit quadruple zeros, but that was not enough to win his freedom after a traffic stop in May.

A Manatee County sheriff’s deputy said Shuchat failed field sobriety tests, even though Shuchat showed no obvious signs of impairment. He was not slurring words. His eyes were fine.

There was no odor of alcohol.Authorities got a urine sample from Shuchat, which came back clean a few weeks ago. No drugs. No alcohol. A state prosecutor dropped the case…
Shuchat, 54, an executive at a lumber company in Canada, will not let his arrest slide as a mere inconvenience or a story to tell about American police. He wants to sue the Sheriff’s Office, calling his arrest in Bradenton a terrifying experience…

“This was the most degrading and dehumanizing thing I have ever been through,” Shuchat said. “This was crazy. I was not drunk.”

Last year, out of the 1,008 breath tests given by Manatee deputies, 23 people had results of 0.000.

DUI cases are inherently problematic because each driver is different. Some faces are naturally red. Some speech is naturally slurred.

A bigger person may have a harder time doing field-sobriety tests, such as walking a straight line, than a person who is slender.

In the legal defense community, field sobriety tests are dubbed “abnormal” exercises used to test “normal” abilities.

Authorities who are challenged in lawsuits routinely say that police act in good faith, that a stop and a detention were performed within the scope of the officer’s duties.

Deputies ask drivers about any physical problems that may prevent them from completing field-sobriety exercises. Shuchat weighs more than 250 pounds and is 6 feet, 1 inch tall.

He said he did not have any physical or medical ailments.

If a person is arrested after field-sobriety tests, deputies are not going to free the person based on 0.000 on the breath test, Capt. William Dixon of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said. The driver is detained, and presumed impaired, before the breath test is given.

Deputies have discretion in using a portable breath test in cases in which the deputy thinks the person may be impaired, but not enough to support a criminal DUI case. The driver will not be arrested. The results are not allowed in court. The portable breath test is meant to compel the person to find another way home.

It was not immediately known why Deputy Lee Harrington did not use a portable breath test on Shuchat. Whether Harrington had one that night, or could not get one, has not been determined.

Dixon said it was in Harrington’s discretion to arrest Shuchat on suspicion of DUI.

Another deputy, Michael Lesselroth, said Shuchat was weaving in a lane in the 2300 block of 53rd Avenue West at about 11 p.m. the night he was arrested.

“How do you weave in a lane? I’ve never heard of that before,” Shuchat said in an interview.

Lesselroth said he swerved in his patrol car to avoid a collision with Shuchat, who was driving a rented Dodge Durango. Shuchat, the deputy said, “swayed” in the driver’s seat of his car.

The deputy called Harrington to conduct a DUI examination.

Shuchat said he had a glass of wine during dinner at a Sarasota steakhouse, a statement that Harrington reported in his write-up.

Harrington asked Shuchat to walk on a piece of tape, heel to toe. Shuchat had trouble with his balance and stepped off the line, according to a report.

Shuchat was told to use his eyes to follow a light in front of him. Deputies said he moved his head to track the light.

Shuchat was arrested. At a sheriff’s station, he breath came came up 0.000. Harrington thought it was a mistake, Shuchat recalled, and told him to blow harder.

“I’m blowing my brains out,” Shuchat said. Shuchat again blew 0.000.

Shuchat told Harrington to free him.

But the deputy said he could not leave. Shuchat was ordered to give urine for analysis.

Authorities say a person who is under the influence of a drug and who has not been drinking will register 0.000 on the breath test.

Shuchat spent several hours in jail before he posted $500 bail. A prosecutor last month said there was insufficient evidence against Shuchat.

“Charlie Chan used to say, ‘Never hunt rabbit with a dead dog,’” Lipinski said. “That’s what they are doing here: a DUI case with triple zeros and clean urine.”