Yes, the video of you pre-arrest, arrest and at central breath testing will be view by the jury during your Tampa DUI trial. Generally, it is one of the first pieces of evidence introduced by the State Attorney’s Office during a DUI trial. If the State isn’t admitting it, then it must be extremely beneficial for the defense, so it would be quickly admitted during the defense case-in-chief.
As we have discussed elsewhere on our Tampa DUI attorney blog, the video from the night of your arrest should show several matters. First, it very likely will show your driving immediately prior to your arrest, which could be very beneficial to the defense of your DUI charge. Additionally, it will show your performance or lack of performance of the field sobriety exercises. Arguably most importantly, it will show you interact with the officer, including your ability to hold a conversation with the officer, ability to understand and answer basic questions, etc. Lastly, it will show you during your time immediately prior to either taking or refusing to take your breath test.
During the course of the handling of your Tampa DUI, our attorneys will repeatedly review your video to identify strengths and weaknesses of your video. Additionally, we will ensure any unfairly prejudicial portions of the DUI video, including portions where the arresting officer makes statements concerning only arresting folks, who “are really drunk.” Often times, these sorts of statements are “innocently” made during their investigations.
If you have questions concerning your Tampa DUI and the video from the night of the arrest, contact the Tampa DUI attorneys of Hackworth Law for a free case consultation. We have handled thousands of criminal cases throughout the entire Tampa Bay area, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Polk counties. If you would like to contact one of our Tampa DUI attorneys immediately, please use the “contact us now” tab in the upper right hand corner of our website. We appreciate you taking the time to check out our Tampa DUI attorney blog and look forward to hearing from you.