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MEMORANDUM TO: Mike Mornson FROM: Leslie Witterschein DATE: February 13, 1998 RE: DWI law changes Mike, as Bob and I were discussing our application for the 1998 prosecution contract, we thought you would be interested in how the latest DWI laws will affect the City of St. Anthony and our anticipated representation of the city in court. First, and most importantly, is that the new changes in the law will definitely increase the amount of time that a case is in the system. Accordingly,the hours spent by our office on St. Anthony matters will also increase. For example, the new laws create a new level of offense they have called an enhanced gross misdemeanor. Corresponding to the new offense, are several mandatory penalties, including significant jail time and long-term monitoring,which will be very expensive for the individual. As such, and because of the constitutional issues involved in the new laws, attorneys will be much less likely to plead their clients,regardless of the nature of the evidence against them. Further complicating this problem is the new intoxilyzers, which have had some problems. Thus, defense attorneys are eager to challenge the validity of any test. In addition, after speaking with John Ohl regarding the seizure and forfeiture laws relating to the new DWI law, we agreed to handle the administrative procedures for the city on a trial basis. So far, we have had no vehicles seized. Although I do not anticipate that this will cause a significant impact on our caseload; we are at this point unable to determine what effect, if any,this provision will have on St. Anthony. Even though these new laws may have impacts that no legislator anticipated, we will not allow this to affect the zealousness of our representation. We thought,however, that you would be interested in knowing how we anticipate the effects on these laws in the disposition of cases in St. Anthony over the next year.