| Read Time: 2 minutes | blog

NHTSA Finds No Significant Increased Crash Risk with Cannabis Use

NHTSA, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is a pro-law enforcement national agency that develops the standards for DWI investigations in North Carolina and nationwide. As a result, NHTSA is known for extreme bias and sloppy pseudoscience in its reporting of the effects of alcohol. One classic example is the “standard battery of field sobriety tests,” which cops...

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| Read Time: 4 minutes | Uncategorized

Hiltzheimer Featured as NCAJ’s Rising Star, October 2019

Honored to be featured as North Carolina Advocates for Justice’s Rising Star, October 2019.  Check out my Q&A with some of my thoughts as a career defender at the link below, and included here.  Much respect to NCAJ for their great work in the criminal justice community in the state, and for the recognition. NCAJ Trial Briefs, October 2019...

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What’s the point of this traffic stop? Rodriguez v. United States and the Extended Detention for a DWI Investigation

The Limits of Police Power in a Traffic Stop Let’s say you’re pulled over for speeding.  The cop comes up to your window and says he clocked you going 74 in a 65 (leaving aside for the moment that everyone drives faster than that during rush hour, including the same cop who pulled you over). It’s 1:00 in the...

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Red/glassy eyes? You’re probably not impaired.

The Setup I can’t count the number of police reports I’ve read that start with a routine traffic stop for speeding, at some classic Raleigh Police speed trap like Glenwood Avenue by the Carolina Country Club or south of downtown on S. Dawson Street, and then it all escalates into a DWI investigation because the cop-on-duty “detects an odor...

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| Read Time: 3 minutes | blog

Marijuana Crimes in the Age of Legalized Hemp: Know Your Rights, Know the Facts

Eventually North Carolina will catch up with the more enlightened states where the dark age of marijuana prohibition has come to a close, but until that day, we have entered a new frontier with respect to your rights as a citizen when you are suspected of marijuana-related crimes.  Why?  Because the government and its uniformed foot soldiers can no...

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| Read Time: 2 minutes | Uncategorized

More DWI Checkpoints in Raleigh

In case you thought you were free travel on public roads without having to concern yourself with a baseless intrusion by law enforcement, rest assured that the various Wake County law enforcement agencies are still actively hosting DWI checkpoints in the area.  While they occur with less frequency now than they did a couple of years ago when the...

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Pro Bono Representation for Durham Civil Rights Protesters

The Klan announced a “victory parade” at the news that Donald Trump would be the next president of the United States.  After all, Trump gave the rhetoric of hate a home at the center of his campaign.  He made blanket statements describing Mexicans as “rapists,” and described Mexico itself as “our enemy.”  Trump refused to condemn David Duke, America’s...

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| Read Time: 1 minute | blog

Driving with a cellphone is more dangerous than DUI with a .08 BAC*

* According to Washington Governor Jay Inslee, in a hyperbolic defense of his state’s imposition of a new law that gives the police yet another reason to intrude on your ability to travel freely without interference by law enforcement. They’re calling it “E-DUI” — driving under the influence of electronic devices.  Meanwhile in every city in America: It will...

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Happy Fourth of July?

As we celebrate this symbolic day in the land of the free, pay no attention to fact that the Raleigh Police set up a DWI checkpoint on Saturday night in which every single driver was stopped and interrogated by the long arm of your local government without suspicion of any wrongdoing. Twelve people were arrested for DWIs, despite, presumably,...

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Colorado Judge: Breath Test Results Tainted by Widespread Fraud

A Colorado judge issued an order barring the use of breath test evidence in cases originating from July 2015 to the present, following a hearing requested by defense attorney Danny Luneau on behalf of a client.  Luneau established at the hearing that the calibration records of breath test instruments in the county had been falsified by state employees seeking...

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