The last thing a Baton Rouge defendant needs following an arrest is to make a difficult legal situation worse. Trying to cover up evidence may be tempting. Taking this action is not advisable or legal.
Louisiana State Police arrested the same woman twice in April. The first time, the Maringouin driver was cited for offenses related to a suspected DWI crash. The 23-year-old woman rolled her Lexus after veering off a Pointe Coupee Parish road and hitting a fence.
Blood was drawn at a local hospital while the woman was being treated for injuries. The sample was sent to the state crime lab for a toxicology test to back up the drunk-driving charge. The woman was arrested again less than two weeks later on allegations that the defendant attempted to have the blood sample destroyed.
Reports said that the woman called the lab and pretended to be a court official, with the purpose of having the lab destroy her blood sample. The young woman apparently stated the blood test was no longer necessary because the DWI charge was dropped. The call was followed up by an email, using the same false identity to make the same request.
State police later traced the communications to the woman who crashed her Lexus. Authorities said that the phone call to the crime lab was made from the defendant’s cellphone. The email originated from the woman’s personal computer.
A second arrest was made. The woman was charged with forgery and false personation. Officers reported the defendant was booked into prison and admitted she contacted the lab to get rid of the blood sample.
Defendants do not want to be in a negative legal position as a result of their own undoing. Something a defendant says or does to erase a trail of evidence, accidentally or on purpose, may hinder or ruin chance of minimizing charges or winning a case.
Source: The Advocate, “Maringouin woman booked in attempt to get Crime Lab to destroy DWI evidence” Advocate staff report, Apr. 27, 2014