Lawrence Taylor Pleads Guilty to DUI Charge in Florida

According to Palm Beach County records, former NFL star Lawrence Taylor pleaded guilty to a drunk driving charge on June 18. The charge was related to a September 2016 accident that involved him sideswiping a motorhome and hitting a police vehicle after trying to change lanes. Separate breath tests showed that Taylor had a blood alcohol content of 0.082 and 0.084 percent. Florida law says that anyone with a BAC of 0.08 percent or higher is legally impaired.

Taylor will spend a year on probation and have his drivers license suspended for the next nine months. He will also be required to have an ignition interlock device installed in his car for six months and be required to pay a fine of almost $7,500. Finally, he will have to serve 75 hours of community service with an option to buy up to half of those hours at $10 per hour.

When a driver is charged with drunk driving, it may be in that person’s best interest to contact an attorney. Legal counsel may be able to help that driver create defenses to the charge that may result in a plea or the charge being dropped entirely. A plea agreement may help an individual avoid some or all possible penalties.

Defenses to a drunk driving charge could include asserting that a car was moving erratically because of a mechanical issue as opposed to driver impairment. A lawyer may also argue that a client’s blood alcohol content was close enough to the legal limit to question whether the testing was correct. Finally, witness or police testimony may be questioned to create doubt in favor of the driver.