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Tiffany Haddish
Scores Legal Win …
One Field Sobriety Test Thrown Out of Georgia DUI Case
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Tiffany Haddish‘s Georgia DUI case is still dragging on … but, she won a minor legal victory Wednesday when a judge ruled the results of one field sobriety test and statements she made to cops at the time can’t be presented at trial.
A Fayette County Court judge ruled Wednesday that the officer who arrested Haddish incorrectly administered the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus — or HGN — test … the well-known field sobriety test where an officer asks a suspected impaired driver to follow a light or finger with just their eyes.
The judge says Haddish told the officer at the time she had a lazy eye … but he didn’t ask any questions about it and administered the test without considering how it might affect the results. As such, the court found the test was not applied in a reliable manner so the results can’t be used in the case against her.
As for the statements Haddish made during the arrest … the judge found Haddish was not read her Miranda rights before the “interrogation” began when the officer told her they needed “to address something” and mentioned that he smelled weed.
The court ruled a reasonable person would respond with some sort of explanation … thus beginning an interrogation that requires the Miranda warning to be admissible.
Worth noting … prosecutors can still present evidence from two other field sobriety tests — so, it’s not a complete victory for the comedian.
Haddish’s attorneys — Marissa Goldberg and Drew Findling — are clearly sick of this case … recently asking a judge to throw out the four-year-old misdemeanor case because they say it being stuck in legal limbo violates her rights to a speedy trial and has been negatively impacting her career.
They note no one was injured or killed … and it’s time to put this one to rest.
