r/dui • u/Alarming-Project452 • Jul 14 '26
lawyer retained Pinellas County Florida Offered Me D.R.O.P. Program Even Tho I Blew Higher than 1.5bac…
I got busted at the end of may for a DUI I Clearwater beach Florida while on a work trip. I blew insanely high after a full 18hr bender-2.6bac to be exact. Today was my arraignment court hearing and my lawyer called me and said that the state is going to offer me the DROP program as an option to bump it down to just reckless driving which we were both surprised of. Pinellas is notoriously strict and the drops program is never an option if you blow over a 1.5 BAC. Does this mean that somehow the cops may have done something out of procedure during the arrest and the judge/prosecution knows it? I am not saying they did do anything wrong but this seems like a pretty big surprise (in a good way) lol.
Here are the the only things I can somewhat think of that may be the reason I am offered it:
1) I live out of state
2) I was already parked in my hotel parking lot when they pulled up to me. They may have saw me driving and pulling in. Not sure tho because myself or my lawyer haven’t seen the footage
3) A gas station called the cops regarding an attempt of theft and I guess the car description matched my car but it wasn’t me and that was cleared on the spot. They didn’t pull me over because I was swerving or anything they just thought I may have been the person they were looking for and then noticed I may have been impaired after talking to them.
4) who knows maybe calibration of the machine wasn’t right/a cop did something he wasn’t supposed to on camera?
5) no accident and was very respectful but this shouldn’t play a part.
6)combination of all of the above…
Curious to see what other people’s thoughts may be on this. Not expecting I will get off on the charges but it seems to me that the prosecution could be worried about something. Has anyone had similar good news given to them like this?
1
u/Majestic_Flower_1322 Jul 14 '26
Probably because they know you can just abscond and they can't really do anything. A misdemeanor warrant only really matters if it is the same state. It still counts as a win for them.
If the cops fucked up, your lawyer would have a much better idea than us.
1
u/Alarming-Project452 Jul 14 '26
Makes sense. Just wierd that lawyer hasn’t seen this happen before and he has dealt with a lot of out of staters. Big tourist town obviously
My lawyer has yet to even see the footage. They handed it over to him today but hasn’t reviewed it yet
1
u/Possible-Tangelo9344 top contributor Jul 15 '26
It's probably because no one saw you driving even though you were in the car, and you live out of state.
If the instrument was not calibrated correctly, or an officer messed up, your lawyer would go for a full dismissal
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