Contesting a Fabricated Drug Charge Added After an Alabama DUI Refusal
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Reviewed & verified by A. Jason Velez, Esq.*
Managing Attorney, 1LAW · Last reviewed January 1, 2026
Legal Inquiry
Consumer Legal Issue
I was pulled over for speeding and received a dui, speeding, and open container ticket. I didnt do the breathalyzer. When I was being process in I had to pee very bad and was denied the restroom so I urinated in the trash can next to me. The officer said let's charge her with Marijuana since she peed in the trash. I had no Marijuana neither do I do any drugs. No Marijuana was found or seen on video nor processed as evidence. They want me to sign some paperwork and not mention the Marijuana to the judge or anyone when I accept the court program. The officer lied about the Marijuana to add false charge on me. What can I do?
Attorney Answer
Two clocks are running and only one of them is in the courtroom. Because you refused the breath test, a license suspension is already in motion on its own track, with its own short deadline, and it will not wait for your criminal case.
Under Ala. Code § 32-5-192(a)(3) you must be told that refusing the chemical test suspends your driving privilege for a minimum of 90 days, and § 32-5-192(c)(2) directs the ALEA Secretary to suspend on the officer's sworn report under § 32-5A-304. Notice of the intended suspension is served personally by the officer along with a 30-day temporary permit under Ala. Code § 32-5A-303, and the review and hearing procedure — including the deadline to request it — is in Ala. Code §§ 32-5A-306 and 32-5A-307, not in § 32-5-192.
Know the limits of that hearing before you walk in. Section 32-5-192(d) confines a refusal hearing to three questions: whether the officer had reasonable grounds, whether you were arrested, and whether you refused. It expressly excludes the argument that you were not properly told what refusing would cost you. That is the most common misconception in refusal cases.
On the marijuana charge: no seized substance, no lab result, nothing on video and nothing booked into evidence is exactly what your lawyer uses. That is a discovery fight, and the material you need can be overwritten on short retention schedules.
What you can do
1. Find the paperwork the officer handed you the night of the arrest and read the notice of suspension and temporary permit. Request the administrative hearing under §§ 32-5A-306 and 32-5A-307 in writing immediately. 2. Send a written preservation demand for the body camera, dash camera, booking-room and cell video, and the evidence log, before anything is purged. 3. Do not sign the court-program paperwork until a lawyer has read it. Being asked to say nothing to the judge about a charge is itself a reason to have counsel review the document. 4. Ask for full discovery: the evidence submission log, any lab request, and the officer's narrative. 5. Write down now, while it is fresh, who was present when the officer said what he said.
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Frequently Asked Questions
If I win the refusal hearing, does the DUI charge go away?
No. The suspension under § 32-5-192 and the criminal DUI case are separate proceedings with different decision-makers and different standards. You can win one and lose the other on the same stop. Handle both.
Can I argue at the hearing that the officer never warned me what refusing meant?
Not at that hearing. Section 32-5-192(d) limits the issues to reasonable grounds, arrest, and refusal, and specifically excludes whether you were told the consequences. Raise the warning problem with your criminal defense lawyer instead.
Is 90 days the most I can lose for refusing?
No — § 32-5-192(a)(3) states a minimum of 90 days, not a cap. Refusal suspensions commonly run longer than the suspension for taking and failing a test, which is why the hearing request under §§ 32-5A-306 and 32-5A-307 matters so much.
