Question: Last week I was arrested in Cobb County for DUI.  I was out with some friends from my days at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta.  We started the evening smoking some cigars, drinking some top-shelf whiskey and having some steaks.  We were celebrating my new job in Smyrna where I'll be working with advanced technology on top-secret government projects for the military.  Nothing too rowdy and a good time was had by all.  No strip clubs or massage places like in the day.  This time was actually pretty classy.  I even brought my wife.

Anyway, I probably should have let her drive home from Elevation Chophouse and definitely from Johnnie MacCracken's Celtic Pub in Marietta.  I admit I was pretty drunk.  But I know how to handle my alcohol because I grew up with my father going to bars.  He's a welder and those guys know how to drink!

I'm writing to ask about some beer bottles the cop found in my truck.  It didn't look good because I had about 10 empties in the truck and about a case of empties in the back.

The Cobb cop said they were evidence.  But the cans have been in there for weeks.  I just never cleaned out the truck.  Can they really use the cans as evidence against me?  It just doesn't seem fair because they were already in the vehicle.

Answer: A prosecutor will certainly try to use the beer cans in your truck as evidence against you for a DUI charge.  The prosecutor will make the argument that with over 30 beer cans in the car it was likely that you had consumed some of the contents.

You can try to mitigate the damage by introducing evidence that the cans had been in the vehicle for some time.  You can do this through testimony that others had seen the cans in your car a long time before the arrest.

Even if a jury believes that the beer cans in the truck long predate the arrest, the prosecutor wants the jury to see that there were literally dozens of empty beer cans in your truck.  That will likely lead the jury to think that you drink often.  Your lawyer, on the other hand, may try to have the evidence excluded as too prejudicial.

Keep us posted on how your DUI case s going.

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