Legal Question in DUI Law in Wisconsin

WI Drunk Driving Charge--Defendant Asleep in Parked Car

Yes, one certainly can be charged with drunken driving in WI when found asleep in a parked car located on private property and it is extremely common. I have even tried one jury case where the client was asleep in bed in his own home and was still charged with drunken driving earlier that evening. Luckily, however, being charged is not the same as being convicted. In my client's case (he was arrested in his own home), the jury came back with a verdict of "not guilty" after only about 20 minutes. Although I cannot advise you without representing you and knowing all the facts; I can say that, as a general matter, the government must prove two things in any first offense drunk driving case--that the defendant drove and, secondly, that he was drunk or had a prohibited level of intoxicant(s) in his system at the time he drove. An acquittal should result if either of these elements of the crime is not proven beyond a reasonable doubt to the satisfaction of a unanimous jury. In WI, the definition of driving has been loosened up to the point where any manipulation of any of the vehicle controls--even turning off the ignition--constitutes driving in a legal sense. And, driving does not have to occur on a public road--any sort of vehicle operation on private property can also support a conviction. However, unless the government can prove that it was you who either activated or deactivated the ignition, their case will fail. This is usually proven in via circumstantial evidence such as admission to driving by the defendant or the fact that nobody else was in the vicinity who could have moved the vehicle to that location. In order to get the test results into evidence without an expert witness, the state also must prove that the defendant last drove within three hours of the time that the test sample was taken. If the last driving is outside three hours, the state must bring in a toxicologist at considerable expense to prove what the likely blood alcohol contest was at the time of last driving. The toxicologist will base this estimate upon a regressive analysis how much alcohol was in the person's system, say, five hours ago, assuming the test result five hours later, and assuming a constant rate of removal of alcohol from the blood by a normal human body. In other words, these can be difficult cases for the government to win sometimes. You therefore need to hire an experienced criminal lawyer as soon as possible.