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Man Charged With DUI After Testing Positive For Caffeine

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Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
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Police charged a California man with driving under the influence after he was arrested for allegedly operating his car in an erratic fashion.

Joseph Schwab, 36, was heading to his home in Fairfield when an Alcohol Beverage Control agent pulled him over. He was reportedly “weaving in and out of traffic almost causing several collisions,” reports local NBC news affiliate KCRA3.

After searching the vehicle, the agent said she found a number of legal workout products and supplements. Schwab then performed a number of field sobriety tests. The particular element of the tests that seemed to alarm the agent was Schwab’s dilated pupils.

“The driver seemed very amped up, very agitated, very combative, and she thought he was under the influence of something,” Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams said, according to KCRA3.

The agent arrested Schwab and transported him to jail; he consented to blood testing.

“I was 100 percent confident that I was not under the influence of anything,” Schwab said.

Tests results were negative for every substance tested — THC, opiates, oxycodone, cocaine, and several others — except for caffeine.

The district attorney’s office is still pursuing the case and wants to charge Schwab with a DUI, even though Abrams admitted herself that it’s not an easy conviction. “This is a case without a blood result, so it makes it a very difficult challenge to prove in court,” Abrams said, according to KCRA3.

Caffeine, while technically considered a drug, is not known to impair a driver’s ability to operate heavy machinery. In fact, some studies show caffeine may make people more alert while driving.

Schwab says that the arrest has caused professional problems for him.

“It looked like I was undependable and when you tell this kind of story to someone they naturally are not going to believe it,” Schwab explained. “I didn’t believe it. I actually consulted with the other attorneys in my office, to make sure that I wasn’t missing something,” Stacy Barrett, Schwab’s defense lawyer, said.

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Tags : california
Eric Lieberman