Hennepin County DWI Dropped to Petty Improper Lane Change


Hennepin County DWI Dropped to Petty Improper Lane Change

Our client in Hennepin County walked away from a DWI charge after we negotiated a blockbuster pre-trial deal. In this case, police arrested our client for DWI. Our client agreed to take a chemical test to measure her blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The result of this test yielded a BAC result of over 0.08. Accordingly, the government charged our client with misdemeanor Fourth Degree DWI.

In most cases, it is not uncommon for the defense to negotiate a deal that calls for the defendant to plead guilty to misdemeanor Careless Driving. In most cases, this is a good resolution, as the defendant avoids a DWI on his record. In this case, we did even better.

After several rounds of negotiations, and the threat of taking this case to trial, the government finally agreed to drop the misdemeanor DWI if our client agreed to pled to a petty misdemeanor “Improper Lane Change” charge.

For those who may not know, a petty misdemeanor is not a crime (e.g., a parking ticket). By law, the maximum possible penalty for a petty misdemeanor is a $300 fine. That means our client avoided a DWI conviction. More importantly, she maintained a clean criminal record.