Legal Question in DUI Law in Wisconsin

OWI-Drunk Driving First Offense, Forced Blood Draw

If you took an intoximeter (fka "breathalyzer") test at the police station and the result was lower than the blood test, you may have a good case to fight. Stopping someone out of a legitimate concern for their safety and welfare is allowed; however, if the police depended solely upon information obtained from an obviously intoxicated person, there may be an opportunity to successfully challenge the stop (which would result in dismissal of the charges). You should therefore retain an experienced criminal attorney with drunken driving experience as soon as possible. Although forcing a blood draw is rare on a first offense, some localities use blood as their primary test even for OWI first offense, and that is indeed authorized by law. Blood is also the only test which is practical for detection of THC or any other controlled substances (even a trace of which supports a conviction--without any alcohol being present). Any time that the breath alcohol reading is lower than expected, a blood draw to test for drugs is also fairly routine. Any jurisdiction is more likely to force blood following a refusal. However, I do not understand how you could have refused the breath test, yet obtained a .064 breath reading at the police station. In terms of looking up information on your own, I am not aware of any case law specifically addressing this issue. However, you would find any such case law in the official "Wisconsin Reporters" library, and statutes in the official "Wisconsin Statutes." The drunken driving statutes today are amazingly complex and have grown to about four pages of single spaced fine print. They are revised several times a year, so any "hard copy" published versions are probably already out of date. The case law on drunken driving in WI probably runs close to 1000 pages or more.