Bad news for drunk drivers: DWI No-Refusal returns
It’s considerably cheaper to call for a ride
Bad news for drunk drivers — the district attorneys from Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy counties have banded together this holiday season to make sure law enforcement has the means to draw your blood, whether you like it or not, if you’re stopped and suspected of drunk driving after failing a field-sobriety test.
“Okay, just let me try to walk a straight line again. I slipped the last time, stubbed my toe, tripped, my heel came off, and plus, my bad hip is acting up.”
Saying “No” to a breathalyzer won’t be allowed until after the new year.
The aim, for the district attorneys and law enforcement, is to make sure we all make it safely into 2026. Will this no-refusal policy have an effect on wouldbe drunk drivers?
If anything, the DAs are hopeful that a policy meant to deter drinking and driving — No-Refusal — can dissuade the practice, as was spelled out during The Rio Grande Valley District Attorney Coalition press conference held in Edinburg last Tuesday, Nov. 25.
That district attorneys’ event officially kicked off the annual No Refusal DWI Enforcement Holiday Campaign.
The Cost is not cheap
What’s a DWI arrest, subsequent conviction or simple guilty plea, going to cost you these days?
“What if it’s not me getting arrested, but my kid? He just started driving. No, he don’t have no driver’s license, but he’s a good boy. We just haven’t had time to drive to the DL place. Besides, that wreck he had last month wasn’t his fault. Snowbird pulled out right in front of him. Sure, my boy was texting, but he was still looking at the road. Like his old man, he can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Advice from The Advance News should you and/or family get popped for a DWI charge during the month of December or into the first few days of the new year, Jan. 2:
Call a lawyer first, and second, call a therapist to get you through the upcoming stressful months.
Cost for a defense attorney to handle a simple DWI charge:
It used to be around 10 grand, and still is, what with the attorney, court costs, bail, the bondsman; but that doesn’t count the higher cost for car insurance once the company runs your driving record.
If you, or your kid, gets popped for a DWI and is the cause of a wreck, which involves injuries, and even if it doesn’t, a runner for an attorney will likely convince the injured party that they need legal representation, chiropractic care sooner rather than later.
By the time you read this, the victim has already lawyered up, and someone is already looking at what your assets might equal.
“He’s got five properties in his name, and his wife has three. Each worth more than a million. Let’s change the contingency fee on the contract draft to 45 percent before you take it to them to sign.”
Then you get into the issue of restitution, and life will never be the same.
The DAs Act
Last Tuesday, district attorneys from the four alcohol-soaked counties that comprise the RGV, Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy, met along I-69, in Edinburg, to help get the word out with the help of local media: From now (Nov. 25) until Jan. 2, if you’re stopped and suspected of driving drunk, there is no right to refuse a breathalyzer test. If you do refuse one, your blood will be drawn to determine your blood-alcohol content, either with or without your cooperation.
For cops, that means they don’t have to listen to a drunk’s explanation of why they were weaving all over the road, doing 80 in a 30, with an open container in the front seat, and that rank smell of cannabis in the air.
“What smell?”
There’s also no need for cops to listen to the common answer given when asked how much alcohol the driver has consumed: “Only two beers.”
For women: “Only two glasses of wine, and it was white, not red. Plus, I may have taken a Xanax, maybe two. My husband is a real…”
The No-Refusals are relatively new to South Texas.
Not long after Ricardo Rodriguez was elected Hidalgo County DA in 2014 and assumed office in January 2015, he and his fellow DAs in the three neighboring counties got together and formed The Rio Grande Valley District Attorneys Coalition. That gave them a working area to patrol, with the No-Refusals spread across the four counties instead of hit and miss adoption — this county, yes; this county, no.
The first holiday they focused on with regard to DWIs was Labor Day. From there it morphed into the other holidays and even months — all of November and December the last two years, 2023 and 2024.
Call for a Ride
So if you’re drunk, better to stay home, or if you’re at a party or a bar, call a cab, Uber, Lyft, your brother, provided he’s been released from jail already.
Just don’t get behind the wheel, say the DAs.
During this No-Refusal month, those stopped while allegedly driving drunk who refuse to provide a breath sample are subject to blood testing at the scene, a nearby jail, or a medical facility. (The cost will be passed on to you.)
Anyone stopped by a cop for suspected drunk driving who lack the ability to walk a straight line, touch their nose with the help of a flashlight, stand up, remember their name, or where they live, can still refuse a breathalyzer, but then a blood test will be ordered by one of the judges standing by, ready and willing to sign off on a search warrant needed to obtain your blood without consent.
Then it’s all over. The courts have you by the blood draw: .20.
“Two beers. That’s all I had.”
Even a .09 (.08 is the legal limit) is going to get you busted. Hitting that mark doesn’t take a lot, especially during the month of holiday parties where free booze is being guzzled by the gallons.
“Here, try a margarita.”
For an average-sized American man, for example, drinking four beers in two hours may not be enough to raise your blood-alcohol content to .08 percent, but five beers likely will. (Source: verywellmind. com.)
Defense attorneys are standing by — ka-ching.
The most important thing on the agenda — getting through this holiday season without any traffic fatalities tied to drunk driving.