Illinois has recently changed the law about DUI video.  In a recent case the court found that destroying a video after a defense attorney asked for a copy may result in the trial court entering an order directing that everything that might have been on that video being excluded from being talked about at trial, resulting in a NOT GUILTY on the DUI charge (or a dismissal by the charging agency).

While this is good news, we have had a few cases that have defined that new video rule better.  Where the officer takes the driver off camera to perform field sobriety tests, resulting in no video recording of the field sobriety tests, the courts have found that the prosecution can still describe what happened off camera.  The reasoning is that the video was not destroyed, it merely never existed.  Also, other cases have required that there be a request to preserve the video for the courts to take such action.  Of course if video is never taken then the court is not going to count that as a destruction of evidence.  Remember the Illinois State Police has a rule that DUI arrests must be documented by video, and there is a rule that if departments record video they must keep the recording for at least 90 days.

The takeaway from all of this is that you should subpoena those video files immediately to preserve these motions.  You may be able to get a court to rule you way and earn a dismissal of the charges.

Good Luck,