DUI in New Port Richey

After a DUI arrest in Pasco County, FL, the case will be prosecuted at the courthouse in Dade City or New Port Richey. Your case will be heard at the courthouse in New Port Richey if you were arrested for DUI on the west side of the county or if you were arrested by an officer with any of the following agencies:

• the New Port Richey Police Department;
• the Port Richey Police Department; or
• the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office – West Pasco Patrol Division.

These agencies in Pasco County, FL, take an aggressive approach to DUI enforcement. Many of the officers with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office use dashcam video and body-worn video to record everything that occurred during the investigation and arrest.

Obtaining all of the videos quickly is an important part of your defense at the DHSMV hearing to protect your driver’s license and at the courthouse where the charge is being prosecuted.

Many of the DUI enforcement officers in Pasco County, FL, have received training to be a certified Breath Test Operators on the Intoxilyzer 8000. Some officers in Pasco County, FL, have received advanced training on Road Side Sobriety Testing or as a Drug Recognition Expert/Evaluator.

Attorney for DUI Defense in New Port Richey, FL

Whether you are accused of blowing over the legal limit of .08 or the enhanced limit of .15 or whether you allegedly refused chemical testing of your breath, blood, or urine, call an experienced criminal defense attorney in Pasco County, FL, at Sammis Law Firm to discuss your case.

From a first DUI charge to a second or subsequent offense, we have the experience and focus needed to fight your case. Whether your case involves a breath test, blood test, urine test, or refusal to consent to test, we can help.

During the consultation, we can discuss the charges pending against you, the potential penalties for that offense, and the best way to fight the charges. The goal in these cases include:

• getting the administrative suspension invalidated during the formal review hearing; and
• getting the DUI charges resolved without a conviction in court.

If you were arrested for DUI in Pasco County, FL, contact an experienced attorney at the Sammis Law Firm. We provide an aggressive defense for drunk driving charges. Contact us to find out what you must do today to protect your rights.

Call (813) 250-0500.

10 Day Rule to Demand the Formal Review Hearing

Don’t waive your right to a formal review hearing during the first ten (10) days after the arrest without talking to an attorney first. Call us to find out why we ALWAYS recommend demanding the formal review hearing within the first 10 days after the arrest.

Some attorneys might tell you to enroll in DUI school and then go to the DHSMV Bureau of Administrative Review (BAR) Office in Tampa, FL, to request a “waiver review hearing.”

Requesting the “waiver review hearing” means that you are stipulating to the administrative suspension, which is an administrative finding that you were DUI. If you don’t fight to remove it, the finding that you were DUI will remain on your driving record for 75 years.

Instead, find out why we recommend hiring an attorney to demand a formal review hearing, which is the only way to contest the administrative suspension. We go to the BAR Office in Tampa, FL, for you to demand the formal review hearing. We also help you secure a 42-day permit so that you can continue driving to work while we fight to invalidate the suspension.

To contest the suspension, the demand for a formal review hearing must be made within the first ten (10) days after your arrest.

After understanding all of their options, most of our clients decide to go forward with a formal review hearing even if they are eligible for immediate reinstatement for hardship purposes after a waiver review hearing.

Before you decide, call us to discuss your options and the consequences.

DUI Breath Test Cases in New Port Richey, FL

In many of these cases, after an arrest for DUI in New Port Richey, the NPRPD arresting officer will ask you to submit to a breath test on a breathalyzer machine.

The New Port Richey Police Department has one Intoxilyer, Serial Number 80-001064, sent out for repairs numerous times over the years.

The alcohol testing program in New Port Richey has routinely had problems during monthly inspections.

Those problems included missing forms, retesting more than twice, failure to provide adequate reason for retesting, problems with the mouth alcohol/alcohol free test, problems with controls outside of tolerance, problems uploading COBRA data to the mother FDLE computer in Tallahassee, and six weeks worth of missing COBRA data that was somehow destroyed in late October, November, and December of 2014.

Some of these same types of problems have continued ever since. Several new problems have emerged in 2020, including an unusually high number of RFI readings during subject tests and problems printing data. For some recent agency inspections, Form 40 had to be reprinted from the database because it could not be printed.

The Agency Inspector at the New Port Richey Police Department

The current Agency Inspector for the alcohol testing program at the New Port Richey Police Department is Sergeant Jason S. Engel. Sergeant Jason S. Engel completed an Agency Inspector Course (CJSTC Specialized Course #850) at the Southeastern Public Safety Institute on November 4, 2015.

The FDLE certified that Sergeant Jason Engel was issued an agency inspector permit to conduct agency inspections at the New Port Richey Police Department on November 10, 2015. Sergeant Enger also completed a breath test operator’s renewal course, CJSTC Advanced Course #951, of the Southeastern Public Safety Institute at St. Petersburg College in May 2014.

Intoxilyzer 8000 with Serial Number 80-001064

Interested in learning more about Intoxilyzer 80-001064?

Through a public record request, we obtained all documents related to this machine, including the monthly agency inspection reports, department inspections, field notes, repair records, sign-in logs, and other correspondence from 2012.

The problems with breath testing in New Port Richey are so bad that in many cases, the subject is taken to the jail at the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in Land O’Lakes to blow into their breath test machine.

DUI Breath Testing at the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office

Problems also exist with those breath test machines maintained by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.  The agency inspector is responsible for maintaining the five Intoxilyzer 8000 machines assigned to the sheriff’s office.

Several years ago, one of the agency inspectors was caught deleting error messages from Form 40 that occurred during agency inspections by backspacing through the error message left by the machine.

Your attorney might be able to use these problems or find other problems to show that your breath test should be excluded from evidence because the machine was not in substantial compliance with the statute and administrative rules governing the maintenance of the machines.

Problems with DUI Checkpoint in New Port Richey

Watch a video discussing a recent case handled by Jason Sammis after his client was arrested in New Port Richey:

If you have been arrested for DUI after blowing in the breath machine or refusing to take the breath test, your case will be prosecuted at the courthouse in Dade City or New Port Richey, FL.

In addition to the criminal case, you should also fight the DUI administrative suspension of your driver’s license initiated by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV).

DUI Information Center

DUI Defense Lawyers in New Port Richey, FL – Visit the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD) website to find a directory of DUI defense lawyers with offices in New Port Richey or search for attorneys in other cities throughout the United States. NCDD members tend to focus on DUI Defense and have access to the top continuing legal education (CLE) courses on trial techniques and scientific testing, as well as other valuable information and resources.

Impaired Driving / DUI Enforcement Location Calendar in New Port Richey and Pasco County, FL – Law Enforcement Officers are moving away from DUI sobriety checkpoints and using the enhanced enforcement locations instead. In the enhanced enforcement locations, officers with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, the New Port Richey Police Department, and the Port Richey Police Department will saturate the area and pull people over for traffic infractions or equipment violations. The Enhanced Section pays special attention to traffic violations in different parts of New Port Richey and the surrounding areas in Pasco County. The locations are selected based on city complaints, traffic crash statistics, and speed studies. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office says the locations are subject to change without advance notice. Visit their website to find out the dates and locations of their plans for “Continued Enforcement Focus on Aggressive and Impaired Drivers.” with enforced focus violation(s) for speed, distracted drivers, or seat belt violations.

DUI Scandal in New Port Richey – The New Port Richey Police Department was rocked with scandal when one of its detectives (who was also an agency inspector) blew a .161 and .151 after driving to a crime scene while allegedly under the influence of alcohol on April 10, 2015. His fellow officers neglected to conduct a proper DUI investigation but asked him to blow into the same machine he had maintained for an “administrative” test. After the breath test, the agency inspector for New Port Richey was driven home by a fellow officer but never arrested for DUI. After discovering what happened, New Port Richey Police Chief Kim Bogart accepted the officer’s resignation.

DUI Schools in New Port Richey and Pasco County – Visit the website for Pasco County, FL, to find information on DUI schools at either the west side location in New Port Richey or the Zephyrhills and Dade City locations. The website also features a community service list, a staff directory, and instructions on how to sign up for the Victim Impact Panel sponsored by MADD.

Drunk Driving Defense Lawyers in New Port Richey, FL

Contact Sammis Law Firm today to figure out what steps you must take in the ten (10) days after your arrest to preserve all of your options for the best result in your drunk driving case. Whether you took the breath test or refused to submit to testing after the DUI arrest in Pasco County, FL, we can help.

We represent clients at every stage of the case, from the arraignment, pre-trial disposition, status conferences, motion hearings, docket sounding, and trial. Whether this is your first DUI arrest or a second or subsequent offense, we can help. Our New Port Richey criminal defense attorneys can talk with you over the phone or in the office to discuss your options.

Find out what you need to do today to protect your rights. Contact our experienced Pasco County DUI lawyers today.

Call (813) 250-0500 for more information.

This article was last updated on Friday, September 29, 2023.