In cases such as these it is essential that you fight the DWI because New Mexico courts have ruled that having a child in your car while committing any kind of DWI is, in itself, child abuse. You can’t argue things to the jury like, “Well, it was 0.08, but they were driving safely.” You have to fight the DWI to fight the felony child abuse case. In that case, it’s even more important to hopefully have a client who declined to do the Standard Field Sobriety Test or declined to give a breath sample, so you just litigate whether or not it was DWI.
If you are convicted of a DWI, the child abuse is just a lock – they don’t have to prove anything after that, and that’s a third degree felony.
