 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Hamrac v. State11/3/2000
PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
WRIT DENIED.
Houston , Cook, See, Lyons, Brown, Johnstone, and England, JJ., concur.
Hooper, C.J., dissents.
HOOPER, Chief Justice (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. According to the police officer's testimony in this case, the facts were as follows: On the evening of August 29, 1998, Dean Polk, a Red Level police officer, saw a small 1979 Toyota truck stopped on County Road 82, after dark. The truck had no lights on, and as the officer approached the truck, he turned his blue lights on. The truck began to roll backward, and it coasted off the roadway. The officer had to put his car in reverse and back up to allow the truck to move. The officer walked up to the truck to investigate, and he saw Hamrac in the driver's seat leaning over the steering wheel and working with some wires. He said he asked Hamrac what was wrong with the truck and that Hamrac told him the truck was "dead," that the ignition did not work, and that he was trying to "straight-wire it." The officer asked to see Hamrac's driver's license, and Hamrac said he did not have one. The officer noticed the odor of an alcoholic beverage when he approached the truck, and the odor became stronger as Hamrac spoke to the officer. When the officer asked whether he had been drinking, Hamrac answered "No." The officer asked him to step out of the truck and perform field-sobriety tests. The officer testified that Hamrac could hardly stand up without holding to the truck and that he was unable to complete the field-sobriety tests. The officer thought Hamrac was under the influence of alcohol, because he failed the field- sobriety tests, his eyes were red, his speech was severely slurred, and his balance was extremely bad. Hamrac told the officer he had "bad knees" because of a logging accident. The officer placed Hamrac under arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol and for stopping or standing in the roadway. When it was learned that Hamrac had a revoked license, he was also charged with driving with a revoked license.
According to Hamrac's testimony, he did not have the keys to the truck. Charles Bush, who had borrowed the truck from his nephew Christopher Bradley Bush, testified that he had the keys. Bush also testified that he had picked up the keys at a bar owned by his mother- in-law, on the Monday following the arrest of Hamrac. Mr. Bush also testified that the truck in which Hamrac was found by the officer is in a dilapidated condition and has a fuel-pump problem. He said the wiring for the pump was run haphazardly to the battery and that this condition required that the wiring to the pump be disconnected when the engine was turned off or else the pump would continue running and run the battery down. Bush said an ignition key was still necessary to start the truck, in addition to "straight-wiring" the pump.
Hamrac testified that he had drunk too much and had passed out on the passenger side of the truck. He said he woke up, out in the country, alone in the truck, and with a car coming upon him from behind. He said he started to roll the truck off the roadway; that as he did he heard the fuel pump running and attempted to disconnect the wires operating the pump, in order to keep the pump from burning up. He disputed the officer's testimony that he was straight-wiring the truck. He also testified that the officer never asked him if he had driven the truck and that he had never admitted to driving the truck.
Benjamin Taylor testified that he went to retrieve Bush's truck from the "impound yard" in Andalusia, where it had been taken after Hamrac's arrest. Taylor stated that in or
Page 1 2 Alabama DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|