Mark Ryan Thiessen


Stories from Mark Ryan Thiessen
In the heat of trial, all trial attorneys fight vigorously for their DWI clients. In that fight, it’s understandable that you want to destroy the officer, destroy the Standard Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs), and vindicate your client.
Together, House Bills 20482 and 35823 refashioned Texas DWI law and punishment—and finally abolished surcharges. Kind of.
“Ma’am, we regret to inform you, but your son was killed by a drunk driver.”
“Ma’am, we regret to inform you, but your son has been arrested for killing someone while driving intoxicated.”
Whether blood samples used in forensic science Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) testing can be affected by endogenous ethanol production is a recurrent and yet unresolved defense. The basis of endogenous ethanol production is whether microbial growth can occur to falsely elevate the ethanol concentration in forensic blood samples.
The sweet acrid smell of a freshly lit cigarette danced inside his nostrils, seeping into his unconscious brain, waking him. His eyelids twitched and tremored, but did not open. It was an auto somatic response; like a mother drawn to her crying babe. Not something sought out. It was more a keening allure; an impulse impossible to ignore. Vices. Lovely reliable vices.
However, Texas is currently transitioning to the Intoxilyzer 9000 and training breath test operators through local technical supervisors. Implementation of the Intoxilyzer 9000 was scheduled for Summer 2015, but due to software issues and bugs, the 9000 has not been approved for evidential use.
Finally the day has come: Written on the face of the State’s file, in big red letters, is the blood test result. Most attorneys cringe when the lab result reveals a blood alcohol concentration over a 0.15.
"We, the Jury, find the defendant not guilty.” Makes your hair stand on end, drops the weight from your shoulders, and weakens your knees. No sweeter words are ever heard by criminal defense attorneys standing shoulder to shoulder with their clients.
The era of the total-refusal DWI case is quickly coming to a close in Texas. Gone are the days of refusing a breath test without concern for something more invasive. DWI blood test trials are the future for the criminal trial attorney.
“May it please the court, opposing counsel…Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for listening to all the evidence. . . .” Just about this time, juries’ eyes glaze over; they shift focus and start daydreaming. You have just lost the jury.