January 31, 2012

• Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 2:11 pm

The client, 30 year old professional boxer, went to a friend’s house in Rowley to watch the fights when without his knowledge was given marijuana brownies to eat. Attorney Topazio learned that his client had no reason to anticipate the intoxicating effects of the marijuana laced brownies when he ate them as he only believed he was eating regular brownies. Despite this fact, the client attempted to drive home after he learned what he ate when he got into an accident and was described by passer-bys as freaking out and yelling for assistance. When police arrived, the client was found with his eyes closed and unresponsive to verbal and physical stimuli. According to the police report, the officer performed sternal rubs on the client until he could provide coherent responses to the officer. According to the police report, the client admitted to consuming marijuana brownies at a friend’s house and his eyes were observed to be severely bloodshot. The client gave the same history to paramedics when they arrived. Unable to stand on his own, the client was placed on a stretcher where the officer administered a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test and had the client submit to a portable breath test. The portable breath test returned a result of 000% BAC, ruling out alcohol as the cause of the client’s impairment. The client was transported by ambulance to a local hospital where a medical emergency was ruled out as the cause of the client’s condition. For medical purposes, the client voluntarily provided a urine sample which tested positive for the presence of cannabis or marijuana. Attorney Topazio met with the prosecutor who was seeking a conviction on all charges, and argued that the Massachusetts OUI statute punishes only “the voluntary consumption of alcohol or drugs whose consequences are known or should be known to the user,” Commonwealth v. Wallace, 14 Mass. App. Ct. 358, 360–361 & n.7, 439 N.E.2d 848, 850–851 & n.7 (1982). Attorney Topazio argued that a defendant is entitled to be acquitted if his intoxication was caused by an involuntary intoxication since the client had no idea of what would happen to him after he ate what he thought were regular brownies. Today, unable to convince the Commonwealth to dismiss the entire case, Attorney Topazio was able to convince the Commonwealth to agree to a CWOF on the OUI – drugs charge on the condition that the remaining counts be dismissed, in lieu of pushing the case to trial and risking having his client to disclose who provided or distributed to him the marijuana brownies, and the court agreed.