Bill White's 17 year old daughter arrested for DWI

how can they charge her with a DWI if she didn't take a breathalyzer? i know she failed the field sobriety test but that could just be from fatigue.

 

The officer smelled alcohol on her breath.

 

maybe she had some nyquil.

 

I'm pretty sure if you refuse a breathalyzer, you are charged with DWI.

 

Bill White's office works very hard to help improve this city and run it in a responsible way.

If she's found guilty, she should get the same punishment as everyone else (no less or more of a punishment). I don't see him as the type that would expect his daughter to get special treatment.

 

Her dad's wealthy. She'll get a slap on the wrist.

 

thadeus.. isn't is pretty common for a first time dwi person to get a slap on the wrist?

 

Is she hot?

 

My point was... it seems like quite a few people get fairly light penalties for first DWI so if she did... it wouldn't necessarily just be because of who she is.....

Then again, most people you hear about are famous and all... I don't know exactly what the average penalty is. anyone know?

 

Good question. Here's the deal on this: There are three ways you can be intoxicated in Texas (as in most states):

(1) Loss of the normal use of your mental faculties;
(2) Loss of the normal use of your physical faculties;
(3) Breath or blood alcohol above .08.

If the only way to prove DWI was by a breath test, then wouldn't it stand to reason that everyone would simply refuse to take the test? Sure, of course it would. Then a person would only be facing a license suspension. So, as you can imagine, the law makes provisions for this.

That's when an officer looks at other factors, such as the Field Sobriety Tests, whether their speech was slurred, bloodshot eyes, somewhat incoherant, etc....

Now, of course, by analyzing each one of these in a vacuum we could easily explain them away.

For instance, maybe I didn't do well on the walk-and-turn because I recently sprained your ankle playing ball. And maybe my speech is slurred because that's just the way I talk. And maybe I have bloodshot eyes because I didn't sleep much the night before. And maybe I'm not really incoherant, I'm just nervous being on the side of the street with cars whizzing by and the cop-car lights flashing.

At the end of the day, an officer isn't going to force my mouth on the Intoxylizer and make me blow. But, depending on the totality of the circumstances I may very well be looking at a DWI charge.

 

I guess it depends on one's definition of "light".

A first-offense DWI is a Class B punishable by up to 180 days county jail. Now here's the deal: Unless a person has prior convictions of some sort (and only felony convictions make someone ineligible for probation from a jury) is a jury EVER going to max a person? Umm, probably not.

Remember, DWI is an interesting crime. Think about the juries...there is typically a "...there but for the Grace of God go I" mentality with DWI's. Many of us have been in that situation and just never got caught.

As opposed to a rapist or drug dealer, where my experience with juries is they have the attitude that "We can *judge* that guy because we'd NEVER do something like THAT", etc....

You get the point.

So, that being said, typically a first-timer will be put on a year probation or maybe serve the minimum 3 days in the county jail (for first-offense DWI's) and pay a fine.

The kicker is what DPS does now: Upon conviction, they hit you with a "surcharge" of $1,000 per year for THREE straight years. And if a person doesn't pay it they're unable to renew their driver's license.

 

Where are the pics?

 

Who cares.

 

eh, who cares. Kids drink, it happens. Doesn't make him any less of a mayor.

 

"Hey, did you hear about Mayor White's kid getting picked up for DUI?"

 

She's got one of the best defense lawyers in Houston. Rusty Hardin is known for winning high profile cases, but I am sure it won't be cheap. Probably looking at $15-20,000 for his services.

 

So, kind of tangential to this....

if you get pulled over and you are slightly tipsy....

what is the best course to take to avoid getting screwed..

should you refuse the breathalizer even if you think you might be borderline .08?

should you say you had just a couple?

should you refuse the field sobriety test?

 

Beat me to it.

 

I heard you should refuse the breathalizer. Also, I just stick to drinking beer now, it's harder to get drunk off just beer.