ZT was charged with DUI, Leaving the Scene of an Accident, Failure to carry a License, and Driving with no insurance.  At a bench trial, the state called the arresting officer as its only witness and also introduced a video of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and some conversations between the Defendant and the arresting officer.  Defendant's motion for directed finding was granted at the close of the State's case due to a lack of evidence regarding actual physical control of the vehicle.

The arresting officer was called to the scene of a three car accident.  She speaks to a number of people on the scene and approximately 10-15 minutes later, Defendant arrives on the scene on foot and spontaneously states, "I'm the driver of that car, I hit the other cars."  No complaining witness is ever called to the stand and later, on the video, Defendant is heard repeatedly telling the officer that a female was driving his vehicle and left the scene of the accident.  On cross examination, defense counsel questioned the officer about the keys to Defendant's vehicle.  Although the keys were mentioned no where in her reports, she suddenly remembers (2 years later) that the defendant had the keys to the vehicle in his sock when he was arrested.  Surprisingly, once the video is used in the arrest, the offender never again states that he was the driver and continues to allege that a female was driving his vehicle and fled the scene of the accident.

All in all, the witness was not enough for the state to put on their case and the motion for directed finding was granted on all counts.