Reduced Drunk Driving Charge Because Woman Had Pierced Tongue

Drunk driving is a very serious charge that affects many Wisconsin families every year. Just by being accused of a DWI or OWI can cause irreparable damage to a person’s professional reputation, and it can lead to potentially undue stress on that person’s family.

Drunk driving stories are ubiquitous in the news, and often times the severity of the charge gets lost on a reader. Imagine if you were pulled over after a Saturday night out — there is so much you could lose by being charged with a DWI. Your license; your freedom; and the trust of your friends and family. The hardship doesn’t stop there. The emotional toll of a drunk driving charge could cause you to relive that Saturday night every time you get behind the wheel.

That’s why it is important for the arresting officer and any other officials assigned to a DWI case to perform their investigation dutifully. One such case in New Jersey led to the accused person receiving a lessened drunk driving charge because the officers failed to uphold one of their laws.

A 29-year-old woman was pulled over after officers believed she was intoxicated. And she was — her Breathalyzer test came back with a blood alcohol reading of 0.21, well above the legal limit of 0.08. However, she also had a tongue piercing, and according to New Jersey law, there cannot be any foreign objects in a person’s mouth when they take a blood alcohol test.

Reduced Drunk Driving Charge

She was still charged with drunk driving because she had also failed a field sobriety test. But, the Breathalyzer reading was inadmissible in court and her penalties were reduced – most notably, the suspension of her driver’s license was dropped from a potential seven-month ban to just three.