I got a DUI while trying to sleep one off in my car.

Depends on your jurisdiction, but you'll need to hire a effective lawyer to have any shot at beating or getting the charges reduced.

As an aside, my buddy thought he could drive his riding lawnmower back and forth to the bars as long as he stayed on the sidewalks. His DWI stuck.

Same scenario, 20 years ago. Couldn't get it thrown out, paid the penalties, moved on with life. Never drank again.

General Tso wrote:

As an aside, my buddy thought he could drive his riding lawnmower back and forth to the bars as long as he stayed on the sidewalks. His DWI stuck.

LMAO, reminds me of my criminal justice class I took. And I asked the officer teaching the class if someone could get a DUI riding their bike while drunk. He said it depends on the jurisdiction.

Stories like this really piss me off. Ok, maybe technically you were breaking the law, but any reasonable person would see that you were trying to be safe and not driving. A cop's job is to protect people. He obviously was not protecting anyone here. He was just abusing his power. Somebody should cut his tiny little penis off.

What state was this in?

Was the car parked on public or private property?

Did you move the car at all?

You need to hire a lawyer to fight this. If things don't go so well, you may want to consider a plea bargain for a lesser charge such as public intoxication:

"Public intoxication is not a common plea deal for most DUIs. However, it may be offered in certain cases:

You were found passed out in your car. This is not technically illegal, but if you are parked on the side of a roadway (rather than a parking lot or at home) it can turn into a DUI charge. Prosecutors often have a hard time proving this kind of case, so may offer public intoxication as a deal.

You have reasonable grounds to argue you weren’t driving. The “no driving” defense is a powerful defense in certain cases, especially if officers arrested you after the fact (not while you were in your vehicle). In these cases, you may be offered public intoxication as a deal."

https://www.losangelesduiattorney.com/dui/drunk-in-public-plea-bargain/

under the heading

It hinges largely on your state, how understanding the DA is (generally not very cool at all), and potentially how understanding the presiding judge is.

Pro tip: never, ever, ever get into the driver's seat of a vehicle while intoxicated and turn the vehicle on for any reason whatsoever. If you absolutely must sleep it off in your vehicle (not recommend for a variety of reasons), do so in the passenger's seat.

Get a lawyer who specializes in DUI cases. Good chance that this can get plea-bargained down.

Get a lawyer. If the cop isn't honest and says he saw you pull into a parking lot or something, you could be screwed.

Yea, sitting in the drivers seat with the car on means you are driving. A lot of DUIs occur when the driver is sleeping at a red light or something. How's the cop know you weren't driving and drifted off the road sleeping?

Either way, get a good lawyer and I think you can get the charges dropped. The officer doesn't have any evidence you were actually driving.

You do NOT need a lawyer. They will just rip you off. Demand a jury hearing and the DA will give you a deal. If they case actually goes to trial, then get a lawyer. No jury is going to convict you.

pissed off wrote:

Stories like this really piss me off. Ok, maybe technically you were breaking the law, but any reasonable person would see that you were trying to be safe and not driving. A cop's job is to protect people. He obviously was not protecting anyone here. He was just abusing his power. Somebody should cut his tiny little penis off.

Or the cop saw someone obviously drunk stumble out of the backseat of his car, get into the driver seat, and start the car. I think it’s reasonable at this point to assume the person was planning on driving, not just “turning on his AC”

I can’t say I blame the cop for thinking the guy is bsing

I've 5-6 classes on this wrote:

If "your" sleeping in the car, put the keys in the trunk.

I'm sure that would work out great for you.

DrunkyMcDrunkface wrote:

Pro tip: never, ever, ever get into the driver's seat of a vehicle while intoxicated and turn the vehicle on for any reason whatsoever. If you absolutely must sleep it off in your vehicle (not recommend for a variety of reasons), do so in the passenger's seat.

The OP didn't actually say he was in the driver's seat until later on the thread.

If he'd been in the passenger seat, would that have been legal?

no lawyer wrote:

You do NOT need a lawyer. They will just rip you off. Demand a jury hearing and the DA will give you a deal. If they case actually goes to trial, then get a lawyer. No jury is going to convict you.

That's exactly what I would do. Definitely do this ^.

Best advice ! wrote:

no lawyer wrote:

You do NOT need a lawyer. They will just rip you off. Demand a jury hearing and the DA will give you a deal. If they case actually goes to trial, then get a lawyer. No jury is going to convict you.

That's exactly what I would do. Definitely do this ^.

If you're trying to get off, definitely get a lawyer.

If you plan on pleading guilty, don't get a lawyer. If I had it to do over again, I would not have gotten a lawyer for my DUI, everybody in my county gets the same sentence for a first offense DUI without an accident. Two day sentence served in a hotel taking a two day don't drive drunk class and a $1,500 fine.

I paid more for the lawyer than everything else combined.

*I'm not a lawyer, I don't know anything about your jurisdiction, if you follow my advice and get sent to prison, it's your own damn fault for listening to anonymous posters on a message board.

Unless you're a predicate DWI offender with more legal experience than the DWI Guy Lawyer, this is not good advice at all. Especially if you're up against a stickler DA with a well funded office, that funds the office through DWI fines, you can completely screw yourself out of the gate. If you're this person, you wouldn't have been caught sitting in the driver's seat drunk while your vehicle was running.

Depends on the jurisdiction and how the law is written. Most jurisdictions require some type of "intent" to move/drive/set in motion the vehicle while intoxicated. It's much more believable, and much easier to establish that you're really "sleeping it off" with no intent to drive the vehicle if you're not in the driver's seat. Look though, if you're a drunken mess with your car idling someplace for hours in the middle of the night, it's very likely someone will notice and contact law enforcement, who will investigate and ask a bunch of annoying questions.

DUI on a bike wrote:

General Tso wrote:

As an aside, my buddy thought he could drive his riding lawnmower back and forth to the bars as long as he stayed on the sidewalks. His DWI stuck.

LMAO, reminds me of my criminal justice class I took. And I asked the officer teaching the class if someone could get a DUI riding their bike while drunk. He said it depends on the jurisdiction.

D.U.I.s while driving on a private driveway or private road.

D.U.I.s while mowing one's lawn.

D.U.I.s while driving golf cart.

D.U.I.s while boating.

D.U.I.s while on prescribed pain medication.

D.U.I.s on bicycle while sleeping in back seat of your car with car off and no keys in ignition.

If one is dressed in expensive bike riding gear, no D.U.I. on a bicycle. If one is dressed in jeans. If one is on probation for a D.U.I., one may get a D.U.I. on a bike.

OP, do you regret not driving home now?

What about those new FOB keys. You don’t need to put the key in the ignition.