Texas Man Who Fell Asleep Gets DWI When His Car Was Not Moving

You don’t need to be driving your car to be charged with drunk driving. Recently, in Texas a 20-year-old man was charged with a DWI for allegedly falling asleep at a drive-thru while drunk.

Robert Lee Mahoney charged with driving while intoxicated on in the City of Beaumont in April. His bond was set at $3,000, online jail records showed.

Mahoney was arrested in College Station. A report in the Beaumont Enterprise stated he allegedly fell asleep in a Whataburger drive-thru while intoxicated.
Police learned from the restaurant’s employees that a driver was asleep in their vehicle in the drive-thru.

A report on a local TV station said police showed up and found Mahoney asleep behind the wheel with the engine of the car still running. They knocked on the window, waking him up.

Mahoney allegedly told officers he consumed three beers before getting in his car.

He agreed to a field sobriety test, and was arrested afterward, according to the station KWTX.

The case raises an interesting legal question about whether drivers can be charged with drunk driving if their car is not moving. The answer is yes.

In the Beaumont arrest, the car’s engine was still on. However, a drunk driver can even be charged with a DWI if the car is parked and the engine is not running.

Circumstantial evidence that the car had been moving can be enough to bring a DWI charge.

This evidence could include:

• Warm tires;
• Engine warmth;
• Keys left in the ignition;
• A car in the middle of the roadway or a place like a drive-thru;
• Damage to a vehicle and proximity to an accident scene
• The gear out of neutral
• The absence of an alternate driver in your car and a failure to explain where another driver could be
• Sitting in the driver’s seat.

At the Medlin Law Firm, we pursue an aggressive strategy to find out if police followed proper DWI arrest procedures. Some of our strategies include:

• Establishing if police or troopers acted within the law when you were stopped. Invalid initial stops can undermine a DWI case.
• If you were ordered out of your car, did the police give a valid reason?
• Were legal statutes and guidelines properly followed?
• Did police follow proper procedures when your blood alcohol level was tested?
• Were Breathalyzers used to test you properly calibrated and maintained?
• Were tests properly administered?

 

Find out more about your experienced Fort Worth DWI defense here. If you have been charged with a DWI, you should act fast, Call us today for a free consultation.

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