@theoregonian The Oregon Court of Appeals this week released the body camera footage judges reviewed that captured a Washington County sheriff’s deputy’s indecipherable Miranda warnings to a man stopped on suspicion of riding a motorcycle intoxicated. The court threw out Alex Gerkin’s driving under the influence of intoxicants conviction after reviewing the video. Read more at the link in our bio.
♬ original sound - The Oregonian
September 4, 2026
The driver may be drunk, but it's the cop whose speech is slurred.
Oregon court throws out the charges:
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8 comments:
Isn’t the remedy to exclude any statements after the defective warning, not to dismiss charges?
One of the funny things about vintage TV shows is the cop whipping out a card to read the Miranda warning to perps. But everyone pretty much had it memorized by 68 or so. Now it’s so embedded in my mind I can rattle it off easily.
'Daigonilly!!!'
Two tier justice. Can you imagine if the cop were black and the offender said he doesn't understand jive? No lawyer wanting to keep her bar card would offer that defense. And if you could find one, no judge would grant it.
But copper's a whitey, so all of a sudden it's sorry, I don't speak surfer-dude....CC, JSM
Also, as Wince said, a DUI shouldn't depend on any statements from the offender. What did the officer observe to make the stop? Did the offender blow .08 or fail the blood test? And you don't have the right to refuse the tests, so Miranda doesn't cover that, either.
Like Miranda itself, this is judge-made law to punish police, not guarantee the purity of evidence. CC, JSM
Best way to get a Mumbai boiler-room worker upset at you is to continually make them repeat themselves because you can't understand their accent. CC, JSM
One of my pet peeves is people who have said a thing so many times it's old to them but it's my first time hearing it so I would appreciate if it's said slowly and clearly. Usually it's people calling my work rushing through their name and business name. If they speed mumble through that as if it's not important, they're probably not going to get to the chance to get to the sales pitch.
"One of the funny things about vintage TV shows is the cop whipping out a card to read the Miranda warning to perps."
Wasn't the point of reading it from a card each time so that the person being arrested cannot claim that you left something out?
I've noticed that in British police shows, the warning says, "You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence."
Now that I'm thinking about it while not in the middle of watching a show, I might try to look up what the addition of the "failure to mention" bit has had on real world cases.
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