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Baseball player detained on suspicion of DUI

Jayson Werth, who played as a former outfielder on the Washington Nationals, was detained on suspicion of driving under the influence. Baseball fans in North Carolina may recall that Werth was trying to get on the Seattle Mariners at the time of the alleged incident. He retired from baseball two months after the alleged DUI occurred.

Werth was initially pulled over by police due to having an expired vehicle registration. When a police officer approached the vehicle, Werth allegedly told the officer that he didn’t have the current registration because the vehicle he was driving was borrowed. Werth then allegedly tried handing the officer a “courtesy card” that explained he was a current Major League Baseball player. After looking at the card, the officer asked Werth to get out of the vehicle and inquired how much he had had to drink that night. Werth told the officer that he drank only one glass of wine that evening.

The officer then attempted to perform a field sobriety test. Werth allegedly refused the test without having his lawyer present. The officer told Werth that he was trying to ensure that Werth could safely operate a vehicle and that this could be done without a lawyer present. After Werth again refused the test, he was detained by the officer. At the time of the detainment, Werth received two citations for driving under the influence and one citation for driving with an expired registration. As part of his plea agreement, all charges but one DUI charged were dropped.

Drunk driving typically relies on field sobriety tests, Breathalyzers or blood alcohol tests in order to determine if the person who is suspected of a DUI or DWI has consumed an unsafe amount of alcohol. Most of the tests are admissible in court, but the tests must be administered properly. A lawyer may be able to have the charges dropped if the test wasn’t administered legally. In this case, a lawyer was able to get two of the citations dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Source: Yahoo, “Article Title,” Liz Roscher, 10/01/2018.