First, let's just set up an example so I can discuss how you should react and what you can expect the police to do in a typical DUI situation. Here we go. Let's say you are driving home in Seattle around 10:30 on a Thursday night. It is nearing the end of the week and some friends invited you out for a happy hour that turned into dinner. You had a few drinks, but definitely feel okay to drive. On your way home you are pulled over by a Seattle cop.
He approaches the vehicle and asks for license and registration. After he gets that from you he lets you know you had a brake light out and that is why he pulled you over. He then asks if you had anything to drink tonight.
We should break right here before we even get to field sobriety tests for one quick moment. At this time the Seattle cop is just investigating. He has no reason to believe that you are DUI. At this time of night it is probably just a standard question he asks everyone.
Or maybe he thinks he smells something. No matter the case, you always have a 4th amendment right to remain silent when those answer can hurt you later - like if you tell the cop that you have drinking out in downtown Seattle. The answer to give here? "My Seattle criminal attorney told me not to answer that question" (although you might consider leaving the DUI part out).
At this point the cop is not going to like your answer, but he has zero information to suggest you are too drunk to drive the vehicle (unless you ran into the tail light on your way out of the bar and broke it). But that may not stop him from continuing his investigation. The next thing he'll probably ask you to do is to take some field sobriety tests. So, what should you do.
Ask any DUI attorney in Seattle, and they are probably going to tell you the same thing - do not take Seattle field sobriety tests. First, they are unreliable. Second, they are inaccurate. Third, Seattle cops don't know how to give the properly. And fourth, they don't have any true bearing on your ability to drive a car (what does walking and turning on a line have to do with driving? Nothing). But know that the cop is not going to like that, and he may just haul you down to the station right then and there and arrest you for Seattle. But will the charges stick?
Here is the thing. Unlike answering the questions asked by the cop, field sobriety tests are not seen as testimonial evidence, but more like observational evidence. Because of that, you don't have any constitutional right to refrain from doing them (although you always have the right to refuse them - the legislature haven't made Seattle DUI laws that draconian yet).
So what does that mean? It means that although you don't have to do them, and a Seattle cop can't necessarily use that as the reason for arresting you for Seattle DUI, the prosecutor, should you go to trial, could point out your refusal and infer that you refused because you were too drunk to drive.
However, that can all be explained away if you are reading this article right now. First, I've just explained to you that field sobriety tests are extremely unreliable and inaccurate and don't really provide any evidence of being too drunk to drive (need some numbers? How about this - in the walk and turn test, I believe, only a paltry 68% of those that fail the test are likely to be DUI. That means that 32 out of every 100 people that fail the test are perfectly sober - would you like to have that kind of evidence used against you?)
So, the answer to the title of this post, "Can Field Sobriety Tests be Used Against You in a Seattle DUI Case," sadly is yes. But happily, they will probably have little effect on a jury so long as you can reasonably say you didn't take them for any reason other than you were wasted and thought you would fail.
And, before I leave you, I want to point out that refusing to do field sobriety tests puts the Seattle cop in a tricky spot when he is deciding whether or not to arrest you for DUI. The information he has in front of him is this - broken tail light; smells like alcohol; no idea if he's had anything to drink; refused breath tests but said his Seattle DUI lawyer told him not to take them. He'll probably arrest you and take you down to the station to take a breathalyzer. But as a Seattle DUI attorney, I like my chances fighting that case.
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