Yes! Weekly, a Piedmont Triad area publication, needed a respected DWI defense attorney to comment on a recent high profile DWI case in North Carolina. Writer Jim Longworth called on Clarke Dummit, founder of Dummit Fradin in Winston Salem.
In a highly publicized trial with potential political overtones, U.S. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx’s Chief of Staff, Todd Poole, was found guilty of Driving While Impaired and Resisting Arrest. Judge Gregory Horne found Poole guilty without waiting for the blood test results to come in from the State Bureau of Investigation, which was heavily backlogged. There seem to be no concerns over the Guilty finding, even in the absence of blood evidence, but questions have been raised about what happened after sentencing.
Poole’s attorney requested that blood evidence, once returned from the SBI lab, not be available to the DMV to place stiffer penalties on Poole’s driving privileges. Judge Horne granted this request. Some have wondered whether this concession is available to all, or whether it is a perk of working for a U.S. Representative. Mr. Longworth contacted Mr. Dummit to clarify the matter: “There are many cases in which the blood results are suppressed from use by any agency….” Judge Horne was in no sense granting a politically motivated concession to a Congressional Chief of Staff. Judge Horne was ensuring that the DMV, or any other agency, could not use evidence to impose punishments that was not available when the original Guilty finding was entered.
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