DUI Lawyer Rhode Island
If you have been charged with any of these drinking and driving related offenses in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, allow an experienced attorney and former police officer to put his training and experience to work for you.
You only get one call — make it count!
If you have been arrested for suspicion of DUI, you are entitled to a confidential telephone call for the purposes of securing an attorney. Make that one call count by calling our office
24-hours/day: 401-272-4001.
As a former police officer, Attorney John R. Grasso has the same training and experience as the police detecting and prosecuting DUI and Breathalyzer Refusal cases. He understands the search and seizure issues that affect DUI arrests, the technical aspects of DUI detection, and the processes the police must follow to make a legal DUI motor vehicle stop and subsequent DUI arrest.
What Is DUI?In Rhode Island, there is no such crime as “drunk driving.” The term DUI refers to driving while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs to the extent that your normal faculties are impaired. Your claim that you were not “drunk” or even “intoxicated” does not mean that you may not have been sufficiently “impaired” to be charged and convicted of DUI. Similarly, it is not illegal in Rhode Island to drink and drive – it is illegal to drink too much and then drive. The fact that you have an “odor of alcoholic beverage on your breath” or have “bloodshot, watery eyes” is not proof that will convict you of DUI. |
There are 2 separate ways for the police to charge and convict you of DUI. The first is by proving through their subjective observations that you were impaired while operating a motor vehicle. The second way the police can seek to prove your guilt is to prove that when you were operating your motor vehicle, your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was .08 or higher. Police ordinarily use the results of an Intoxilyzer test given shortly after your arrest to determine what your BAC was when they arrested you.
DUI Results
Attorney Grasso has put this training and experience to work for many clients who were arrested and charged with DUI and Breathalyzer Refusal. As a result of his aggressive defense, he has successfully persuaded the court to dismiss DUI and Refusal cases at the pretrial stage for arrests that lacked probable cause and for the police officer’s failure to comply with the rules and regulations that insure accurate breathalyzer results. Attorney Grasso has argued before the Rhode Island Supreme Court challenging the methods police use to calibrate breathalyzer machines before the results should be admissible in court.
Just Because You Believe You’re Guilty…
Just because you were arrested for DUI and/or Refusal does not mean you will be convicted. If you are arrested and have not consulted with a competent and experienced DUI lawyer, always plead “NOT GUILTY” at your arraignment. Protect your rights and contact [link to Capture page] the Law Office of John R. Grasso, Inc. at 401-272-4001
There are many ways to attack a DUI and Refusal arrest. The officer may not have had a valid reason to stop you. The officer may not have had sufficient probable cause to arrest you. The way a police officer obtained your chemical test results or advised you of your right to refuse to take a breathalyzer test may not comply with the law. The equipment the police used may not have been properly maintained and calibrated according to the Department of Health rules and regulations. There may have been medical or other physical reasons for what the police describe as your poor performance on the field sobriety tests. A competent and experienced DUI attorney can help you decide the best approach to attacking your DUI arrest.
The penalties for DUI and Refusal vary. Both have certain minimum penalties that the Court must impose. The Court has discretion to impose much more severe penalties than the minimums. It’s our job to seek the absolute minimum sanctions that you must endure.
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