04/26/2024
One of our former clients, Katie Slayton, is featured in this investigative story. In the end, her cases were completely dismissed. However, the delays, unwillingness to consider evidence that we as the defense presented, and the toll that it took on her and her family were very hard and unnecessary.
Katie, a single mother who had just moved from California to pursue a job opportunity as an urgent care nurse, and her son were separated during the pendency of her case because one of her charges was for Child Endangerment for “driving under the influence and impaired with her child in the car.”
This is one that felt like guilty until proven innocent, rather than the other way around. We provided a urine sample from the day after her arrest - that was clean - and, when that wasn't compelling, we provided a hair follicle test that we privately paid for (hair follicle tests are extremely accurate tests) that was a 12-Panel test (the most comprehensive testing) for substances in her system for a 3 month period that encompassed her arrest date; as expected, also clean.
But the State refused to dismiss her case or give it any meaningful consideration until the TBI came back with a clean test of its own and even then the State was not eager to dismiss her charges.
These cases illustrate why being arrested is far from being convicted.
From Clarksville to Murfreesboro, from Franklin to Goodlettsville, we found sober drivers charged with DUI, and because of a backlog in alcohol and toxicology tests at the TBI, they are forced to wait months for proof of their innocence.
