Myles L. Berman Guest On The Heidi And Frank Show – Part 1

Transcript:
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There is the doorbell, who could it be? Is it Myles L. Berman? There he is. Top Gun DUI Defense Attorney. It’s so funny right? The way you walked in Myles. It’s like every time, I can’t have Myles on the show and not drink a beer. I’ve got some beers in here and we are going to drink while we talk to the Top Gun DUI Defense Attorney. Here Heidi, you need to open yours? There you go. Sure. Why not? Myles has been a friend of the show now for a very long time. A big supporter of the Heidi and Frank Show and he does the Lord’s work. He is the Top Gun DUI defense Attorney. Now, you’ve been doing this for how long now? The DUI defense attorney part.

Myles Berman: Since early 90s.

Host: Did you start out doing that when you first became an attorney?

Myles Berman: No. I started practicing in Chicago and then moved out to LA in 88 and shortly right after that just started doing DUI defense.

Host: And he knows everything about it.

Myles: Well, we’ve been doing it for a long time.

Host: What’s the thing that was happening on the news? It was so early in the morning and I was rushing out the door, that they are doing this holiday season with the taxis, it’s like half a taxi and half a cop car. It’s something that they are doing at checkpoints. Have you heard about that?

Myles: No, I haven’t heard about that.

Host: Warning about the dangers of drunk driving or something and it’s a $10,000 taxi ride or something like that saying that if you drink and drive you are going to be; this is a new deterrent ad like a $10,000 taxi. But these cars are out that are painted half like a taxi and half like a cop car.

Myles: I’m sure that as people are driving through the checkpoint and they see the

Host: They’ll be out of their mind. Is that half a cop car and half a taxi cab? Or the commercial where you see the guy and the girl walking to their car and they are like hey hey and then there is the chameleon cop against the wall and he’s got bricks like you don’t see us but we see you.

Myles: I see it a little differently. I see people driving through the checkpoint and taxi cab going and they go like, you know what, I’ll take that car.

Host: Yeah, exactly. They’ll get into the back of it. I’ll get into that one. So the checkpoint, is there; on your website, you alert people on where these checkpoints are going to be, right?

Myles: Do you mean topgundui.com?

Host: Yes, yes. Topgundui.com

Myles: Yes, what we do is we post known checkpoints at the end of the week for the upcoming weekend. So I’m going to be expecting a lot of checkpoints between now and the end of the year which doesn’t have so much time left. Look, nobody wants drunk drivers on the road. That’s for sure but at this time of the year there is going to be a lot of enforcement for people who are drinking and driving. So people are at a lot more risk of being arrested for a DUI.

Host: Is it a planned checkpoint public record or do you have a mole inside?

Myles: Actually we are well known to almost every police agency in Southern California and beyond. So, they know us and we actually represent police officers too from time to time. Believe it or not, anybody can get arrested for DUI but police agencies notify us of checkpoints. One of the requirements is that they publish checkpoints. So we get a lot of notifications from police agencies on where they are having their checkpoints plus we do have other sources to find out where the checkpoints are going to be.

Host: You are better off to; I had a friend who was coming home and I think this is, when you think about it, we’ve all been guilty of, not drunk driving but drinking and driving. Going to dinner and having 2 glasses of wine and you are like, I had a two and half hour dinner and I had like 2 glasses of wine and then I had dessert and I had a cappuccino. I’m fine to drive, I’m totally fine and then, sure enough, you get pulled over and maybe it’s still in your system and legally you are drunk. Are you better off when you go through the checkpoints, like a friend who came home from a Christmas party, goes to the checkpoint, the cop says, have you been drinking? She says yeah. I’m coming home from my company’s Christmas party, I had 2 glasses of wine over a 4 hour period. She admitted that she had wine. Is that the smarter way to go? Or just say nothing? As a driver what should I do and what should I not do?

Myles: I can tell you what the law requires and basically it doesn’t require you to indicate where you are coming from, where you are going to, how much you had to drink,

Host: So she didn’t have to say any of that?

Myles: No, she certainly didn’t but people are very intimidated. Nobody wants to get arrested for DUI and nobody wants to go to jail.

Host: We were talking earlier about how intimidating it is with these two girls in Texas who got a full body cavity search just for littering. Yes, a full body cavity search, every part of the field sobriety tests. How drunk am I to let you do that?

Myles: Generally, no.

Host: Remember that this holiday season.

Myles: I mean there must have been some other reason which led to that

Host: You don’t have to give any information. Ma’am where are you heading to tonight? That’s none of your business officer? I can’t imagine saying that.

Myles: You always have to be polite. I mean you have to identify yourself. You have to give them your driver’s licenses, registration, proof of insurance, if they ask for it but going into the requirements of all the other details and basically confessing to a potential crime, people don’t have to do that.

Host: Don’t build a case on yourself. I know what it sounds like we are saying. It looks like we are trying to allow drunk drivers to get home but that’s not what we are saying obviously. It could be that you had some eggnog that was spiked with some spiced rum and you didn’t think it was going to be in your system. You get out and you do all these field sobriety tests and you blow a 0.09 which is a 0.08, 0.08 is the legal limit. So if you blow that exactly, then you are going to be arrested for a DUI. Right? It’s 0.07 or under that you are fined?

Myles: The problem is nobody knows what their alcohol level is based on how many drinks they have. You just don’t know. I mean after you guys finish those beers, Frank, you may be an 0.02 or a little bit less. You have to drink that whole thing in 15 to 20 minutes. Heidi, with you being so dainty and so slender…

Host: Are you drunk already?

Myles: No, I’m just drinking water.

Host: Dainty? If I start to look good, you are hammered. You don’t need a field sobriety test for that. It’s like that chick is hot. Buddy you can’t drive. You should have Heidi at a checkpoint. If people do a double take, it’s like stop.

Myles: It may lead to a body cavity search.

Host: So clearly, you are inebriated.

Myles: So you would be a little bit more and just so people know. One 12 ounce can or a bottle of beer is the same as one glass of wine or one shot of 80 proof liquor. So the amount of alcohol in each drink is about the same.

Host: that is so weird because I feel like and I don’t know Frank because you obviously drink whiskey and beer.

Myles: At the same time?

Host: Usually a shot and a beer. That’s how he starts to drive. I chug it. Don’t you feel like a shot of whiskey is way more stronger than one beer? Don’t you feel that way? Just from the taste, you go ugh. There is a bite to it like it’s going to be stronger and you are talking about 12 ounces of beer against an ounce or a quarter of hard liquor and then there has to be a timeframe after you’ve taken that shot. If I take a shot right now of Tequila and if I blew into a Breathalyzer, it would probably say that I should be in a coma. But it was right there on my tongue, right?

Myles: and that’s one of the reasons why we are able to win a lot of DUI cases because breath testing as you just indicated will give a false high reading is what we call it. There is a lot of problems with the state’s breath test machines that both the defense and the state knows but we are able to bring it out at trial. Most people aren’t even aware of it and they don’t know. I’ll give you a perfect example. Let’s say that somebody gets arrested and they take a breath test, so it’s a 0.16 and a 0.18. That sounds really bad, doesn’t it? That’s twice the limit and more than twice the limit but logically it doesn’t make sense because a person doesn’t go from a 0.16; I feel like I’m being interviewed by 2 police officers. Which one is the good guy? Which one is the bad guy?

Host: You’ll have to figure it out.

Myles: So ma’am. May I talk to you? Breath tests are usually administered a few minutes apart. So a person doesn’t go from a 0.16 to a 0.18 two to five minutes apart. So there is some reason for that. Without getting into too much detail but just on those results themselves.

Host: Don’t they do urine and blood tests too?

Myles: Urine is not a test that is offered after you are arrested. Technically they have to offer you the urine after you take the breath test. If you want another test, they should offer you a urine or a blood test. But because we’ve been winning so many DUI cases with urine, this could be 8 years already that urine tests aren’t available. But just think about how many people got convicted for DUI because they had a urine test but the urine test was actually way high but breath testing is actually here to stay. It also actually leads to another issue where a urine test can be possibly requested under drug screening. In this day and age, people who are driving under the influence, not necessarily of alcohol but we’ve seen a spike of marijuana DUI cases. A spike in DUI, everybody is medicating.

Host: I was driving so slow. Come on buddy! What’s going on here?

Myles: We are seeing a lot of, especially elderly people who are getting arrested even though they are that meek.

Host: From medical marijuana?

Myles: Not just marijuana. Younger people are getting arrested for medical marijuana. Older people are arrested for legal prescription drugs in their system and they end up with something other than a breath test

Host: Unlike alcohol, the alcohol is in your system and you metabolize it and eventually it leaves within a short period of time but marijuana will stay in your system for 30 days and maybe some of these prescription drugs they have to be on will maintain a certain level in your bloodstream so you can stay active. So how can you ever say that I might have smoked weed 2 weeks ago but it’s still in my system and they take my blood test and I was stoned and I was driving that day.

Myles: Usually when testing comes back it’s screening for the process of marijuana in the blood.

Host: How can they add that on? I mean, tell me about reasonable doubt. You can’t prove that I was high that day

Myles: That’s the issue. You’ve got it right. Not that I’m encouraging people to smoke personally. But you are right, it does stay in the system.

Host: If you have a water bong shifter then maybe you’ve given yourself away.

Myles: I don’t know. Surprisingly what really triggers evidence of recent smoking of marijuana is somebody gets stopped and the cops smell pot in the car which always amazes me why people are smoking dope in the car and then just, start driving.

Host: We’ve all been like. I smell somebody is smoking weed at a stop light. Oh yeah. Last weekend, we were like, where is that coming from? Sure enough there are a couple of cars up ahead and you are just like sitting in the car just like it’s a cigarette. I pulled up right next to him and there is that guy right there. I guess even if you have medical marijuana card or license, you can’t do it in the car. We are going to take a break. We are here with Myles L. Berman, the Top Gun DUI defense attorney and if you want to call him. Actually write this number down and put it in your wallet when you are going out to your holiday party just in case. 888-4 TOP GUN. That’s 888-4 TOP GUN, Myles L. Berman. We are going to be taking your questions if you have any. I’m sure you do. It is not an exact science, this whole DUI deal. So you need to learn the basics of what we know before you go out there. 1-800-955-567. Right back with Myles L. Berman. We are Heidi and Frank.