Forced blood tests for suspected DUI drivers

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-no-refusaljun06,0,6561760.story

Warrants allow police to draw blood of uncooperative motorists

By Gerry Smith and Clifford Ward | Chicago Tribune
11:52 PM CDT, June 5, 2008

After St. Charles police pulled over Gerald Tully, 22, on May 24 for speeding and swerving, they told the Elgin man to submit to a Breathalyzer test.

Police said Tullyrefused. So in the middle of the night, officers took a search warrant to the home of an on-call judge who authorized their unusual search request: to draw Tully's blood.

After two vials of blood were drawn, Tully was charged with driving under the influence, ensnared by a new tool for prosecuting drunken driving in Kane County.

The county's first "no-refusal weekend" was aimed at repeat offenders who have found a loophole in Illinois law that issues a penalty for refusing a Breathalyzer test that is less severe than having another DUI conviction.

[tjwash]

1. They have always been able to do that in California.

In the old days they had to take you in to run a simple breathalyser, now the cops have the portable ones with them.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. What do you think the odds are that the blood then enters the nationwide DNA database?

Remember too, this is without a conviction.

[HughMoran]

3. Live Free or Die

.

[Winterblues]

4. Where I live refusal to take a Breathalyzer means mandatory jail

and suspension of driver's license for thirty days. It is a presumption of guilt in the Law's eyes..