Cobb County Lawmaker Faces Several DUI-Related Charges

DUI task force officers claim State Rep. Devan Seabaugh was intoxicated when he drifted into a bicycle lane and hit a cyclist.

The incident happened a little after 9 p.m. near Park Avenue, right in front of Oakland Cemetery in the Grant Park neighborhood.

State Rep. Seabaugh, a Republican who represents parts of Cobb County, was taken to Atlanta City Jail and turned over to booking staff, GSP said. Atlanta city records show seven charges against him, including: driving under the influence, DUI/alcohol, DUI/drugs, DUI/alcohol & drugs, DUI/multiple substances, driving under the influence of alcohol and obedience

The condition of the cyclist was not known. GSP did not detail the exact circumstances of how the crash occurred.

Criminal DUI

Even if the collision didn’t seriously injure the bicycle rider, Rep. Seabaugh could face a civil case. More on that below. However, the criminal charges are a more immediate concern for him, the state, and his Marietta criminal defense lawyer.

Personal Impact

The personal impact of a DUI begins in the wallet. The direct and indirect costs of a DUI total about $10,000, mostly higher auto insurance rates. After a DUI conviction, a driver must maintain high-risk SR-22 insurance for at least three years. SR-22 insurance usually causes insurance rates to triple, at the least. Furthermore, after three years, there’s no guarantee the driver will find cheaper insurance, especially if s/he’s had a ticket or two in those three years.

A Marietta criminal defense lawyer helps DUI defendants deal with the collateral consequences of a criminal case, such as higher insurance rates. We help drivers find the lowest possible rates and get rid of this expensive insurance as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, DUIs have employment impacts. Most bosses believe that people who drink and drive have poor decision-making and judgement skills, and quite frankly, that assessment is usually accurate. Additionally, if the defendant is a full-time or part-time commercial driver, many companies won’t hire people with DUI records as a matter of policy.

A Marietta criminal defense lawyer cannot change peoples’ attitudes about crime. Believe us, we wish we could. However, a lawyer can tell people what to say in these situations and minimize this negative impact.

We haven’t even mentioned the direct consequences of a DUI, which usually include a small amount of jail time (about a day), extended probation, which usually lasts About a year in DUI cases, and extensive court supervision.

Initially, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer negotiates with prosecutors to reduce probation length and ease its terms and conditions. Subsequently, a lawyer files motions with the court to further ease the restrictions, limit the time, or even cancel probation altogether.

The State

This section will be somewhat brief because prosecutors only care about one thing. They want to convict defendants, whether or not the defendant “did it.”

They have the resources to make this happen. In addition to almost limitless tax money, prosecutors have a small army of paralegals, investigators, and other professionals supporting them.

However, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer has a big ace in the hole. The state must prove guilt beyond any reasonable doubt. That’s the highest standard of proof in Georgia law. In practical terms, unless the state produces a reliable and accurate chemical test, the conviction odds in a DUI case are a long shot, at best.440

Marietta Criminal Defense Lawyers and DUI

If prosecutors could skip to the end and introduce a chemical sample, DUIs would be easy for them to win. But that’s not the way it works. Since they must start at square one, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer has multiple chances to create a reasonable doubt.

In the above case, square one is the initial stop. A DUI mod squad responded to the scene. These officers have basically one job, which is to make DUI arrests. So, before they even arrived, they’d pegged Rep. Seabaugh as a drunk driver, and officers saw everything through that lens.

This distorted view includes the initial DUI investigation, when officers look for physical driver symptoms, such as erratic vehicle operation, slow reflexes, and bloodshot eyes. Alcohol consumption causes these symptoms, but so does fatigue, a similar condition. Driving after eighteen consecutive awake hours is like driving with a .05 BAC level. If Rep. Seabaugh was arrested at 9 p.m., he may have been awake for nearly eighteen hours. DUI squad officers could have easily observed the symptoms of fatigue and assumed alcohol caused them.

If officers launched a DUI investigation based on unreliable evidence, even if their intoxication assessment was accurate, the arrest was illegal.

Reliability issues also plague Breathalyzer tests. This gadget is an updated version of the faulty 1920s Drunk-O-Meter. A car that doesn’t run properly is still a car that doesn’t run properly, even if you repaint it and update the stereo. Specific reliability issues include:

• Mouth Alcohol: If subjects belch or vomit in the fifteen minutes before the test, alcohol particles form the stomach flood into the mouth. By law, police officers must observe subjects for fifteen minutes, to cure this flaw. However, courts rarely enforce this requirement.
• Ketone Particles: The liver produces this acid to convert fat into energy. Many people, mostly diabetics, have artificially high ketone levels. To most Breathalyzers, ketones and ethanol are identical, since these particles are chemically similar. Therefore, diabetics and other people with high ketone levels almost always fail Breathalyzer tests.

These topics are rather technical. So, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer usually partners with a chemist in these situations. As a bonus, a degreed chemist has much more credibility than a police Breathalyzer technician.

Civil DUI

Insurance companies often settle property damage claims, like a bent bicycle claim, either on the spot or within a few days of an accident. These settlement offers typically include legal waivers. So, if you’re in this situation, before you take the money and run, think about it.

Property damage-only collisions could cause significant nonec0nomoc losses, such as pain and suffering and, more commonly, emotional distress.

PTSD, which affects as many as half of bicycle crash victims, is a very common effect of a property damage-only crash. Extreme stress, such as the stress of an uncontrolled car barreling toward you, causes chemical changes in the brain. This chemical imbalance causes symptoms like anger, hypervigilance, and depression.

Additionally, these crashes often cause whiplash, a soft tissue injury which, if not promptly and properly treated, could cause paralysis.

So, before you sign on the dotted line, always ask a Marietta personal injury lawyer to evaluate your claim and connect you with a doctor. You need to know what rights you’re giving up before you sign them away.

DUI crashes have criminal and civil consequences. For a free consultation with an experienced Marietta criminal defense lawyer, contact The Phillips Law Firm, LLC. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.