Two women from Beverly suffered minor injuries after a crash with a drunk driver, the Boston Globe’s Metro Desk blog reported Dec. 15. The crash happened around 6:45 a.m. on that same day, on Route 128 near the Route 1A exit. According to the Globe, 19-year-old James Dexter of Danvers was driving under the influence in a stolen pickup truck when he slammed into an SUV driven by Kathleen Olivero, 57, of Beverly and occupied by passenger Tracy Olivero, 34 and also of Beverly. The women’s vehicle was pushed into an exit sign and rolled over into the grass. They went to the hospital with minor injuries. The pickup also rolled over, but Dexter and his passenger, 19-year-old Eric Banks of Danvers, were not injured. Dexter was arrested at the scene and charged with OUI and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Read article: Alleged drunk driver injures two women in Beverly accident
As a Massachusetts drunk driving criminal defense attorney, I would like to know more about what signs of intoxication led to Dexter’s arrest. Massachusetts law sets a lower legal limit for drivers under the age of 21 — just 0.02 instead of the ordinary 0.08 limit. That means it takes very little alcohol to put an underage driver over the legal limit — sometimes so little that the driver shows no signs of intoxication. There are also many factors that provide false positive results to the breathalyzer test. Experienced Massachusetts OUI Defense Lawyers should be able to demonstrate this to a jury. Sometimes these machines register low readings even if no alcohol has been consumed. In that case, it might be a good to try your case. If his blood-alcohol reading was low, and this is Dexter’s first OUI, he may be a good candidate for the 24D/alternative disposition program, which offers reduced penalties for first-time offenders. If he did not consume any alcohol, he should consider going to trial on this case.
In many cases, law enforcement does not or cannot perform breath tests before an arrest. This requires prosecutors to rely on observations and field sobriety tests alone to support the OUI charge, a risky move because police observations are highly subjective and field sobriety tests are notably unreliable. If these are the only foundations of the OUI part of the case, an experienced Massachusetts OUI defense lawyer should be able to challenge them in court, potentially defeating the charge outright.
Based in downtown Boston, the Law Offices of Stephen Neyman represents people charged with all types of OUI crimes in Massachusetts, including charges from serious OUI accidents and related RMV license suspension hearings. Never take a plea bargain before speaking to attorney Neyman about your legal options and your rights. To learn more at a consultation, you can reach our office at (617) 263-6800 or send a message through the Web site.