When a Rochester resident is arrested for a felony level drinking and driving offense, the case will be removed from the local court and presented to a grand jury.
At the grand jury, the prosecution will present its evidence and, if the jurors agree the charges are supported, the defendant will be indicted on the felony charges.
Following indictment, the case will then proceed at the county court level.
For the most part, the grand jury conducts its business in secret, and neither the defendant nor his or her lawyer is allowed to monitor what is happening in the grand jury room while the prosecution is presenting its case.
Fortunately for defendants in this situation, once the defendant is indicted, his or her attorney can request that the court review the grand jury minutes to determine whether legally sufficient evidence was presented to the grand jury to support all of the charges in the indictment.
This may be especially important for felony drinking and driving charges which require the prosecution to establish that the defendant has a least one prior conviction for a misdemeanor or felony alcohol-related driving offense within the past ten years.
The Court of Appeals – New York’s highest court – has ruled that to establish this prior conviction at the grand jury level, simply presenting a certificate of conviction for the prior offense is not sufficient to support the charge.
Instead, the prosecution must present additional connecting evidence establishing that the person listed on the certificate is actually the defendant, not just a person with the same name.
If the judge reviews the grand jury record and finds that the underlying drinking and driving charge was not properly established, the felony charge may be reduced to a misdemeanor.
Felony DWI charges carry very serious consequences. If you need an experienced DWI lawyer, call us at 585-484-7432.
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