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Let’s say a police officer pulls you over and smells alcohol on your breath. Is that enough basis for the officer to make you get out of the car and ask you to perform field sobriety tests?

The Court of Appeals in the case of People v. Rizzo said yes. The smell of intoxicants alone (the alcohol) is sufficient for the police to continue an investigation of you after a traffic stop and ask you to perform field sobriety tests.

Facts of the Case

In this case, the police officer pulled over Defendant Rizzo for a defective taillight. The police officer did not claim any bad driving as the basis of the stop. After she was pulled over, the police officer claimed to smell the odor of intoxicants on Rizzo’s breath. On this basis alone the officer asked Rizzo to get out of the car and perform field sobriety tests.

Until the end of April, the 14A and 14B district courts are waiving all penalties and late fees for outstanding tickets for traffic civil infractions and parking violations dated on or before December 31, 2011.

These courts encompass the cities of Pittsfield Township, Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, Saline, and Chelsea.

The license clearance fee for suspended driver licenses is not waived and must be paid before a license can be reinstated.

There are many potential driving-related civil infractions in Michigan that drivers can receive. For many people, their only contact with the justice system will be a traffic-related citation. One of the most common infractions is a speeding ticket.

Upon receiving a speeding ticket the driver has several options. The driver may simply admit responsibility and pay the fine. Or the driver may admit responsibility with the goal of mitigating the consequences of the civil infraction. Lastly, the driver may deny responsibility and challenge the speeding ticket.

There are two means by which to challenge a civil infraction, either by an informal hearing or a formal hearing.  An informal hearing is where the driver represents him or herself and no city prosecutor is involved.  At a formal hearing, the driver is represented by an attorney and will face a city prosecutor.

Due to automatic spending cuts to take effect on Friday, the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released 2,228 of illegal immigrants held in detention centers throughout the country.

Detainees were released from centers located in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey, and New York.

Officials claimed the high cost of detaining immigrants was impractical in the face of spending cuts to the agency. The cost of detaining an individual for one day is between $122 and $164, according to the National Immigration Forum.

Several years ago the Michigan legislature deemed texting and driving to be a serious enough problem that a law was passed to prevent drivers from texting.

Texting and driving is now a civil infraction. A first offense will cost you $100, additional offenses will be $200.  The driver does not receive points on his or her driving record.

A driver can be cited for reading, typing out, or sending a text message on a cell phone.  Typing in data to a navigation system such as a Garmin that is affixed to the vehicle is still fine.

The Michigan Secretary of State will begin to issue driver’s licenses to noncitizen residents of the state who qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program announced last year by President Barak Obama.

“Michigan will only issue driver’s licenses to individuals who are here legally,” Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said. “The feds now say they consider these young people to be lawfully present while they participate in the DACA program, so we are required to issue driver’s licenses and identification cards. I will continue to follow the law.”

For a noncitizen to gain DACA eligibility, minimum requirements include that he or she must have entered the country before the age of 16 and be currently under 30, have been living in the U.S. for at least 5 years, are in school, have graduated, or in the military, and do not have certain disqualifying criminal convictions.