Police officers who asked Laura to have the alcohol test. / A.M. Costa Rica wire services photo
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A bad day for wine!
By Sergio Castillo and Rosa Monge,
Solving Problem Center
Exclusive to A.M. Costa Rica
It was 3:00 PM in the afternoon, and Laura (an expat) decided to go get some wine for dinner in order to celebrate a special night together with her neighbors: Garabito City Hall had ordered the installation of the public light on the street going toward their condominium!
Therefore, Laura went to the store to get a special wine to celebrate.
After buying the wine and putting it in the car, she realized it was late, and when backing her car she heard a dry hit and immediately stopped, got out of the car and checked, she saw a man, about 45 years of age, lying on the ground, a bicycle and some groceries scattered on the street next to him.
The man could not move, he seemed to have a broken leg.
There were a thousand people around him, two of them called the paramedics.
Laura stayed there, obviously she was not going to leave, the people around would have stopped her.
The paramedics arrived some minutes later together with two police officers who asked Laura to have the alcohol test (bad day for it!), Laura accepted, and the result was 0.77g of alcohol in blood.
And, not understanding much about what was going on Laura was detained by the officers and taken to the Prosecutor´s Office, under charges of reckless driving and possible wrongful injuries.
As evidence, the officers presented the result of the field test, the wine they seized in Laura´s vehicle, and the victim´s testimony being casted at the local clinic at that moment.
At the Prosecutor´s Office a Translator and a Public Defendant were assigned to Laura who had good arrays in the country, and because of it she was let go free a few hours later, but although that the criminal case started been investigated.
Two years later Laura was notified of the preliminary hearing where it was going to be evaluated about having to go to trial or not.
For this hearing, Laura hired highly qualified legal assistance, and the day of the hearing, an Official Translator named by the court read the charges against her: one charge of reckless driving and one of the wrongful injuries.
Therefore, Laura had two crimes that complicate her legal situation, but Laura´s attorney noticed that during the alcohol test Laura had no translator who would explain the test consequences to her, and because of it the attorney requested that act to be annulled, since Laura´s defendant´s rights were violated.
The judge analyzed the situation, and the police authorities´ mistake turned evident, consequently he nullified the alcohol test, and that way the only thing left to evaluate was the lesions the cyclist suffered.
In the end, the cyclist accepted an economic compensation for the days he was not able to work, and the seized wine was return to Laura, at least the wine is aged!
For more information on this case, Ms. Monge and Mr. Castillo can be reached at emails: secastilloq@abogados.or.cr or problemsolvingcentercr@outlook.com
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The views or opinions expressed by the authors are the sole and exclusive responsibility of the senders and do not necessarily represent the opinion of A.M. Costa Rica. Therefore, the newspaper does not accept liability for the author's article content.
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