DUI & Citizenship

[reeses16 8]

My hubby and I have a friend who was arrested for DUI this weekend. Our friend is from Ethiopia, he is here on a Diversity Visa. I am not sure how many years he's been in the US, but he doesn't have citizenship yet.

We're concerned there may have been some sort of misunderstanding between our friend and the officer that arrested him. Our friend does not drink alcohol due to his religious beliefs. We've had him over to our house and gone out to eat with him many many times, and he never drinks. He was driving home from work when he was pulled over. The officer had him blow into a breathalizer and got a "Not readable" message. The officer had him re-do it 2 more times, each time the "Not readable" message came up. He was arrest and spent the night in jail before his brother bailed him out. I thought people had to do other testing (walk the line, count backwards etc.) before they were asked to do the breathalizer. I'm wondering if maybe he was asked to do these tasks but had difficulty following directions since English is his second language.

Anyway, I don't understand how he was arrested if the breathalizer said "not readable." I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, but I hope he consented to a blood test which may bolster his claim of innocence. He has a court date on Thursday. I'm not sure, but my guess is that he will have a public defender.

Specific Questions

(1) Can he or his defender make any specific requests so that he is still eligible for citizenship?

(2) Anyone here apply for citizenship with a DUI, what were your experiences....please PM if you feel this too personal to share on the board

[NickD 202]

My hubby and I have a friend who was arrested for DUI this weekend. Our friend is from Ethiopia, he is here on a Diversity Visa. I am not sure how many years he's been in the US, but he doesn't have citizenship yet.

We're concerned there may have been some sort of misunderstanding between our friend and the officer that arrested him. Our friend does not drink alcohol due to his religious beliefs. We've had him over to our house and gone out to eat with him many many times, and he never drinks. He was driving home from work when he was pulled over. The officer had him blow into a breathalizer and got a "Not readable" message. The officer had him re-do it 2 more times, each time the "Not readable" message came up. He was arrest and spent the night in jail before his brother bailed him out. I thought people had to do other testing (walk the line, count backwards etc.) before they were asked to do the breathalizer. I'm wondering if maybe he was asked to do these tasks but had difficulty following directions since English is his second language.

Anyway, I don't understand how he was arrested if the breathalizer said "not readable." I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, but I hope he consented to a blood test which may bolster his claim of innocence. He has a court date on Thursday. I'm not sure, but my guess is that he will have a public defender.

Specific Questions

(1) Can he or his defender make any specific requests so that he is still eligible for citizenship?

(2) Anyone here apply for citizenship with a DUI, what were your experiences....please PM if you feel this too personal to share on the board

Requires a green card first even before thinking about citizenship. The rest, can't believe there isn't a public outrage since 9/11, more than doubled our police force that is suppose to be there to protect us against terrorists, and all they have to do is to harass people and issue traffic violations. So many in fact, our city needed a judge, two of the worse attorneys in town ran for that position as they could barely make it in private practice. In my opinion, the worse of the two got elected. People are stopped for even the least of offenses if offenses at all. Talk to my neighbors about this, all agree, but can't do anything to correct it.

Would highly recommend your friend hire an attorney, and that requires some background searching, best one would be one that worked for the same law firm as the judge. Can kind of forget about justice, this has become highly political. Since your friend was jailed, the correct attorney will sue the community for false arrest that will take care of his fee.

That DUI charge will always be on his record, and if proved innocent will need all the court findings for the USCIS.

[milimelo 4,477]

Requires a green card first even before thinking about citizenship. The rest, can't believe there isn't a public outrage since 9/11, more than doubled our police force that is suppose to be there to protect us against terrorists, and all they have to do is to harass people and issue traffic violations. So many in fact, our city needed a judge, two of the worse attorneys in town ran for that position as they could barely make it in private practice. In my opinion, the worse of the two got elected. People are stopped for even the least of offenses if offenses at all. Talk to my neighbors about this, all agree, but can't do anything to correct it.

Would highly recommend your friend hire an attorney, and that requires some background searching, best one would be one that worked for the same law firm as the judge. Can kind of forget about justice, this has become highly political. Since your friend was jailed, the correct attorney will sue the community for false arrest that will take care of his fee.

That DUI charge will always be on his record, and if proved innocent will need all the court findings for the USCIS.

Diversity visa winners DO have green cards - it just takes them 5 years to naturalize.

OP, they can't charge your friend if the breathalizer was not readable - have the defender point that out to prosecutor (if police do decide to charge him - but for what?) and have any of the charges dropped. They should've done the blood test if breathalizer wasn't reading it properly - would just go to prove the officer was wrong.

Naturalization wise, this should not hurt your friend at all.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Your post is a bit non-sensical.

Anybody can get arrested. If you walk your dog and a liquor store a few blocks away from your house gets robbed and the robber is described as a person that looks somewhat like you and the cops try to find the bad guy and arrest you, just to make sure it wasn't you who robbed the 7-Eleven, it means squat.

What means something is a conviction for a crime or a plea bargain.

Here is where your story lacks the important part. If your friend was arrested under the "suspicion of driving under the influence" they would have performed a blood alcohol test, I friggin' guarantee that. if he was over the limit, then he would have been charged. If he was under then nothing would have happened.

Now . . . if he was over, has a trial, gets convicted, goes to AA meetings, then this still will not have any impact on his naturalization. If he does it again, then, yes, it will. If he is not convicted, then what are we are concerned about here?

[NickD 202]

Oh, that lottery thingy, two points off my score for replying before my coffee pot quit perking.

Seems ironic this gentleman should have been tossed in jail, have a feeling a part of the story is missing.

[reeses16 8]

@Nick D

No worries. I should have said he had his green card (at least that way people how don't know about DV would understand). Thanks for the advice about how to hire a lawyer. I received a PM from another person who recommended that our friend get a translator. We spoke to him last night and he's trying to arrange that for his hearing on Thursday.

@ Milimemo & Just Bob

I talked to my friend last night and officers never offered/asked him to take a blood test. He said the only other test they gave him was having him follow a light with his eyes. Also, the police did not impound/tow his car. One of the officers actually drove his car and parked in a near by parking lot, which seems weird. I asked him if there were any other reasons he was arrested. My thinking was that maybe they stopped him for suspected DUI, but he has some other violations (didn't have car insurance or registration or something). Anyway, he said the he had all of the required documents and that the officer only said he was being arrested for DUI. He's actually really depressed and embarrassed about the whole thing.

@Just Bob

Also, I don't know much at all about the process of arrest, hearing, charges etc.... I thought that he had to be charged with something in order to be arrested. I mean even in the example you gave the reason for arrest is "you match the description of a robbery suspect." Sure the officers may have suspected DUI, but if the breathalizer was unreadable and no other laws were violated...why would he be arrested? Either way its still a big deal for my friend, the N-400 citizenship form asks, "have you ever been arrested"- now he has to say "yes" and explain/provide additional documents.

Anyway, I agree it does feel like there MUST be some information missing here. Hopefully a translator can help sort out some of the this.

Thank you all for replying!

Edited May 25, 2011 by reeses16

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

@Just Bob

Also, I don't know much at all about the process of arrest, hearing, charges etc.... I thought that he had to be charged with something in order to be arrested. I mean even in the example you gave the reason for arrest is "you match the description of a robbery suspect." Sure the officers may have suspected DUI, but if the breathalizer was unreadable and no other laws were violated...why would he be arrested? Either way its still a big deal for my friend, the N-400 citizenship form asks, "have you ever been arrested"- now he has to say "yes" and explain/provide additional documents.

Probable cause (of driving under the influence).

That said, if the Breathalizer test was inconclusive, they would have performed a blood alcohol test. If they did not, which is weird, they took him "downtown" to sort the issues with the paperwork, i.e., driving without an expired registration or without insurance.

He will need documentation for this . . . . um, incident for the N-400 interview.