Associate Press – The DUI laws are being evaluated as it pertains a person who sits behind the wheel of a park car. The question lies in whether or not the potential use of a person whose blood-alcohol level is over the legal limit can be charged for a crime when they are not driving the car.
The appellate courts looked into this question and made a ruling. The appellate court determined that the “potential use of a vehicle isn’t a crime and that the real issue is whether the defendant demonstrated actual control of the vehicle.”
This has been a long-standing discussion within the Arizona appellate courts pertaining to DUI cases. This typically came up in Court of Appeal rulings in Pima County cases.
A case occurred when police officers found a man in his car with one of his hands on the steering wheel and the other hand holding the key into the ignition. The man’s blood-alcohol level was at .357 and he had a revoked driver’s license. The jury was told to decide if this man’s “potential use of the vehicle presented a danger to himself or others.”
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