Gastric Bypass DUI Homicide Defense?

People usually hate criminal defense attorneys because they do their job. I mean, if you have a client who comes in and pays you to get them off the hook for something they obviously did, the best thing you can do as a lawyer is work all the mitigating factors into a defense so that you, at the least, get your client the most lenient sentence.

So, yeah. Don’t hate the player…

The side effects of a weight-reduction surgerymay play a prominent role during the vehicular homicide trial of John P. Heaney IIIslated to begin today.

Authorities say Heaney, a retired Plainfield, N.J., police officer who lives inLopatcong Township, was drunk when his pickup truck drifted out of its lane on Route 512 and plowed through a caravan of motorcycles on theBangor border July 1, 2011. 

…

In the past few weeks, both Assistant District Attorney Bill Blake and defense attorney Dennis Charles have been battling over Heaney’s medical condition at the time of the crash. Heaney underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2008 for extreme obesity, according to court records, and both sides claim the surgery played a role in the deaths. Conversely, both sides oppose allowing the other’s medical evidence into court.

In documents filed last month, Charles argues Heaney blacked out just before the crash because of hypoglycemia, a condition when a person suffers a drop in blood sugar. Gastric bypass patients often develop the condition following their surgery, and Heaney had documented cases dating back to 2010, Charles argued. SOURCE: The Express-Times

Basically, he argues that because of his surgery, he has a lower tolerance to alcohol and gets drunk faster then passes out.

So, since he knew about his condition before he ever drove that night, I don’t think it really matters whether or not his has the condition. He KNEW that he’d get drunk faster and could possibly pass out. Knowing that, he still did it anyway. 

Which makes him no less culpable than anyone else who chooses to drink too much and drive, since he KNEW what the surgery had done to his tolerance.