DWI In Texas – It seems like a silly question, right? DWI stands for Driving While Intoxicated. How could you possibly get charged for DWI without actually driving a vehicle? It turns out that in Texas it happens all the time.
The key to understanding how lies in how the legislature wrote the law for DWI. It may come as a surprise to learn that the word “drive” is not mentioned at all. Section 49.04(a) of the Texas Penal Code specifically requires that to convict someone for a DWI, the government has to prove that the accused “operated” a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated. Defense attorneys regularly argue with judges and prosecutors about what “operating a vehicle” actually means.
Back in 1995, however, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals defined the word “operate” in a case involving automobile theft. A man was charged after getting into and trying to steal a truck, but the truck wouldn’t move because it needed time to warm up first. The Court ultimately decided that to determine whether someone “operated” a vehicle, we have to see if “the defendant took action to affect the functioning of [the] vehicle that would enable the vehicle’s use.”
Under this definition, there remain a number of different scenarios where a driver could end up accused of and even convicted for a DWI, even though they aren’t actually physically driving or moving the vehicle in any other manner.
These include the following:
*Sleeping in your car with the keys in the ignition
*Starting your car to use the heater or air conditioner
*Listening to the radio
To answer the original question, you actually can be charged with a DWI in Texas even though you may not be driving.
Denton v. State, 911 S.W.2d 388 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995)
What to Do if You Get a DWI in Texas
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