Goldfein: It’s three minutes after the hour. I am Adam Goldfein, thank you so much for joining me. I had a lot of fun with you guys last night, it was a really good time. But today is a little different and I want to put a story in your mind. I want to imagine that we go out and we have a little dinner. Maybe you and your wife or your husband and we’re going to have a couple of glasses of wine, and we’re actually enjoying ourselves. It’s one of those times when you like the couple you’re hanging out with, you know, as opposed to the obligatory “OK honey, do we really have to go out with them?”
You go out and you eat and everything is good. You have a few drinks, things are fine, and you know what, you look at your watch like “we’ve got to go home, we have to get home for the kids, I have a big day tomorrow, I have a meeting,” and you decide that you’re going to start driving home from this really cool restaurant you’ve been eating at down in Buckhead or in Dunwoody and you’re driving on your way home. Everything seems fine and then you look in your rearview mirror and your heart leaps. Why does your heart just jump up into your throat? Because you see blue lights, and it’s not going past you. Those blue lights are indicating for you to pull over. Those lights are getting closer and you realize “oh my God, I’m going to get pulled over. I just was at dinner with my spouse or significant other or maybe my friends. I only had one or two glasses, and now I’m being pulled over for I don’t know what. ” And it might result in a DUI.
It affects literally tens of thousands of individuals are arrested each year in the State of Georgia. Now we’ve done driving under the influence shows from the standpoint of a victim. This is the first show of its kind where we are going to take it from the vantage point of the driver. And I’m very honored to have in the studio with me William Head, who many of you in Atlanta may know him as affectionately as Bubba Head. He goes by his nickname. Let me give you a little information on who’s here in the studio. We’re talking about a super lawyer, rated one of the best lawyers in America, a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association. He’s peer-review rated ‘AV’ by Martindale-Hubbell, which, by the way, is the highest rating. He is a champion of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, a life member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He’s board-certified at the National College of DUI Defense. He’s a sustaining member of the American Association of Justice, but more importantly, he’s the guy that wrote the book on DUI. He is the guy who every lawyer in the state buys his book, takes his classes, and would refer his kids to his firm. And the beautiful thing is I have him sitting two and a half feet from me. I’m pleased you have you here.
Head: Good afternoon. I’m glad to be here.
Goldfein: You know, you’ve made my day. I just want you to know you made my day by coming to share that kind of thought where “oh my God, if I see those blue lights, I don’t know what to do.” I need you to help me if you can, because those people when they’re calling you, or they’re calling another criminal defense firm, they’re not prepared. They’re not prepared for the process that they’re about to undertake.
Head: That’s true. Even attorneys that I represent aren’t ready for that, and many of them make many of the same bad decisions that regular citizens make, even though they’ve been through law school, they don’t exercise what they learned in law school.
Goldfein: What would you say is that first thing is that we see on T.V.? What would you say is the first thing we’ve got to do?
Head: You’ve got to shut the you-know-what up. You’re going to be asked questions from someone who is trained to get answers and that training to get answers usually gets exactly what they want, and you’re on videotape, and everything you’re saying, including “can’t you let me go?” “can’t you just call my husband?” whatever the thing may be, they’re going to use to show consciousness of guilt when it comes to court. So keeping quiet and simply exercising your right to remain silent is probably the most important thing that people don’t do.
Goldfein: That is probably the single most important…and I’d imagine you think that “I can reason myself out of this.”
Head: Well, you probably could in ’65, but you can’t do it anymore because ever since around 1980 when the Federal Government started supplying money to states, started in ’83, but they’ve been supplying money and it is probably the most publicized crime in America if you stop to think about it. Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, everybody gets in the news and you can go to the Smoking Gun. Many of the cases started off as DUI cases, even if they ended up as being something that’s T.V. worthy.
Goldfein: Here’s what’s interesting guys, the phone lines are open, it is a live show. Bubba Head has decided to join us for the full two hours, which is really…let me explain, if he was billing by the hour, we couldn’t afford him. OK, so I appreciate his insight on how to help all of you. Here is the number, 404-872-0750. If we can, Bubba, let’s start with, you know obviously the goal is nobody ever needs you, right? But that’s like an unrealistic goal. So I would start by saying, so everybody knows for the record, you shouldn’t drink and drive. It is a crime. And I know from you, you don’t drink and drive. It’s something you take extremely seriously.
Head: Well first of all, what you just said is what most people think—that drinking and driving is a crime, and it is not a crime anywhere in America. It’s only a crime when you’ve been impaired by whatever you took into your body. It could be alcohol, it could be marijuana, it could be prescription drugs, it could be over-the-counter drugs.
Goldfein: And that’s one of the hottest things right now, isn’t it? The drugs?
Head: Well all kind of drugs, because there are way too many people who have different medications that they take and sometimes they’ll mix it with other over-the-counter medications and it has a very serious effect on their motor skills.
Goldfein: You know, one of those interesting articles that you had sent me we were talking about the aging of the public and how folks are on more medicine, right?
Head: Correct.
Goldfein: And that it might not necessarily be their intent to have that kind of combination but all of a sudden you’re on the prescription medicine then you might take ibuprofen then you might take something else and it creates a cocktail and it ends up impacting or impairing your ability to drive.
Head: And those one or two glasses of wine with those medications and you’ll be hammered. And the thing of it is that the different medications used…it’s not just older people. These days, ADHD drugs in people under 25, I would say is one out of three or four that I see nowadays.
Goldfein: So are you saying then the kids that are taking those types of medicine could potentially have an impairment issue if they were pulled over?
Head: You can’t mix alcohol with those comfortably and not have some possible effect, but the point I’m making is that young people these days, probably due to the Internet age and how much people are having a hard time focusing, are taking more medications than you think at younger ages now. It’s far far different than it was 25 years ago.
Goldfein: No, I think you’re so right. I didn’t even think of it that way. So I guess I’m sitting here going ‘wait a minute,’ there are so many kids that are taking these types of meds, so, you know, the impact, and I appreciate the point as far as it’s not the crime to drink and drive, it’s really whether or not also the per se standpoint if your blood alcohol level’s over the threshold. Can you explain that to everybody?
Head: Sure. And there’s not just one level. For adults everywhere in American now, the adult level 21 and over is .08, and that law has been the same for about six or seven years—all states are on board now. For someone under 21, depending on which state you’re in, its either 0.0 is your standard or 0.1 or 0.2. Georgia’s 0.2, and to me that’s just a concession to the lack of precision of our breath machine. We have the oldest breath machine in existence today, so if you are using the Model T of breath machines, we have it in Georgia.
Goldfein: And you know, you were telling me that it had the computer equipment that was used in the video game “Pong.”
Head: Pong, yes the Pong game.
Goldfein: But I still think you’re kidding me
Head: No, no. That’s what it is. The Z80 processor, and it has a pump to clear the sample chamber that’s the same exact one that would be on a very cheap aquarium
Goldfein: That’s what’s convicting me and putting me in prison?
Head: That’s right, unless you have a lawyer that knows how to fight it.
Goldfein: Alright, well here’s what I want you to do. I want you to we we’re going through this…first off, by the way, if you are arrested for DUI in the State of Georgia, I would bet it wasn’t planned from the standpoint that you didn’t wake up in the morning and say “I’ve got an idea, I’m going to do something fun today,” right? That you’re going to go ahead and do it. I want to make sure everybody has a phone number at a minimum that you can put in your cell phone in case you need it. If you don’t mind, may I give your number out?
Head: Well that number is the one that we answer 24/7. I don’t stay awake for all of it, but we have 11 lawyers and staff members, many of whom are ex-cops, and that’s who answers the phone for us.
Goldfein: OK, stick this number in your cell phone and let’s hope you never need it. 404-250-1113. You know, when folks get pulled over, they start getting asked questions, right? So the police officer would walk up to them and they’re going to want their license, their registration, possibly their insurance card, and then comes the verbal judo.
Head: That’s correct. That’s one of the courses that officers take, called “verbal judo” in Georgia.
Goldfein: So what is that? So I’m answering them, I gave them my license, why do I have to commit verbal martial art with the officer?
Head: Well the officers are trained that by keeping the driver off balance, they’ll get more candid and direct answers. For example, instead of saying “have you been drinking tonight?” The well-trained ones will say “when was your last drink?”
Goldfein: Making the assumption that, in fact, you did have one.
Head: Well, and the person’s thinking “God, he already knows I’m drinking so I better tell him” and many people cough it up.
Goldfein: They confess. What should the answer be?
Head: The answer should be, if you were stopped for speeding is “well officer I was just expecting a ticket and I would be on my way. If you’re going to ask me more questions, do you mind if I call my attorney? I have his or her number right here in my cell phone.”
Goldfein: People would say to you, “I feel guilty saying that, that would almost be like getting into an argument with the officer.” How do you do it without being combative or somehow making it sound like there’s an admission there?
Head: Well, just be polite. Threes no reason to ever be impolite to a police officer, there’s no reason. He or she’s doing their job and you should treat it that way, but at the same time, the police officers, other than recognizing the fact that you are not the normal person who just coughs up everything, and usually from that first question it goes to “well where are you coming from tonight?” And when you mention some strip club, you can bet all of that will show up front and center in your police report.
Goldfein: Right, if you have glitter on your hair, that’s not a good sign.
Head: Or your nose.
Goldfein: Or your nose, right? You smell of perfume, not a good sign.
Head: That’s correct.
Goldfein: Ok, so here are some of the questions I’d like you to be thinking about that we can answer because when we come back, we want you to help us through this process and then maybe share some stories, some real life stories.
Head: Glad to.
Goldfein: So one of the questions I’d like to know when we come back is if the officer asks me to step out of the car and go through a field sobriety test, am I required to? Or can I politely decline? That would be one of the things I’d like to know. And if the officer suspects that I am under the influence and requests that I take a breath or blood or urine exam, what are my options? And can I decline or not and what are the consequences? So field sobriety and blood and alcohol, I think when you see them on, let’s say a T.V. show Cops, I don’t think people understand necessarily what there rights are or maybe they might be asserting that I have all these rights that they don’t, in fact, have, OK?
Head: Good questions.
Goldfein: So we’re going to be talking to William “Bubba” Head, the man who wrote the book on DUI here on the Adam Goldfein show. If you got a question, 404-872-0750. We are here from 1-3 on AM 750, now 95.5 FM, News Talk WSB.
