By Carlos Miller
Montgomery County Police Officer Dina Hoffman swore up and down that the man she had arrested for DUI was passed out in the driver’s seat of a running vehicle in a store parking lot in Gaithersburg last year.
In fact, she testified 11 times that she had to shake George Zaliev awake and even then, he was not cooperative in the field sobriety tests.
Then she was shown a video tape from a store surveillance camera that contradicted her testimony.
It showed that Zaliev was actually laying in the back seat of the car with the back passenger door open and his legs sticking out. It was his friend’s car whom he was waiting to get off work for a ride home.
Although he was drunk with a blood-alcohol content level of .15, nearly twice the legal limit of .08, he was not breaking the law.
By lying in the back seat of the car, Zaliev did nothing illegal and should not have been arrested, Mack said. Case law is clear that people in the back seat of a parked vehicle are not driving under the influence.
In her testimony at the April 2 trial, Hoffman claimed she arrived and approached Zaliev on the left side of the car where he sat behind the wheel asleep. She described shaking his shoulder to wake him.
“He was just sitting in the front seat, kind of sitting there sleeping,” Hoffman testified.
At several points Mack asked the officer if she was certain Zaliev was in the front and not the back.
“Do you recall him being in the back seat on the passenger side?” Mack asked on cross examination.
“No, not when I first got there, no,” Hoffman replied.
“Are you absolutely sure?” Mack asked again.
“Yes,” Hoffman testified. “I did have him sit there while I waited for another officer to come.”
After the recording was played in the courtroom, Hoffman was asked whether she was wrong about Zaliev’s position in the car.
“Yeah, I must have been,” Hoffman testified. “My apologies. It’s been over a year. I deal with a lot of these cases every day so my apologies.”
Now Hoffman is facing a perjury investigation.
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12 responses so far ↓
1 genewitch // May 9, 2009 at 3:46 AM
interestingly enough, in california if you are in possesion of the keys to a vehicle nearby, and are sitting on the curb next to the vehicle, they can charge you with DWI/DUI.
I seen it happen, and it sticks in court.
If this dude was in his friend’s back seat, and she swore under oath that he was in the front and then said she was wrong, defense should have moved to have the case dismissed, as it was her word against his until the video told the ultimate truth.
I’m curious as to what happens next!
Carlos, go to bed!
2 Andrew DeFilippis // May 9, 2009 at 7:53 AM
I’m tempted to purchase and carry the video recorder (below) wherever I go. It clips on to whatever you need it to and it will record a good amount of video. Ready when you need it.
Vievu PVR-PRO 2
http://www.vievu.com/s.nl/it.A/id.31/.f
Sheriffs deputies and police officers should not lie EVER. But we all know they do… It is sad, and that person should be thankful to no end that there was a camera there, or else it would have been the defendant’s word against the police officer.
3 goLIVEmiami // May 9, 2009 at 7:57 AM
Shame that the guy was trying to do the responsible thing and get a ride home, and this cop busted him for no reason.
4 MacK // May 9, 2009 at 11:08 AM
“even then, he was not cooperative in the field sobriety tests.”
So? I would never cooperate with a FST either.
I know that if I had gotten a DUI from this biatch, I would be getting my lawyer to work very quickly, showing how this POS cop perjured herself with me also.
5 NYCPhotorights // May 9, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Case law is clear that people in the back seat of a parked vehicle are not driving under the influence.
But what if they are back seat drivers?
6 Anton Lee // May 9, 2009 at 12:44 PM
thanks for this story. I hope the cop gets fired at least but then again I wished for a million dollars to appear at my bedside today too. Sometimes, things are just impossible.
7 Duane Kerzic // May 9, 2009 at 5:36 PM
wonderful that there was a video. lets hope at the very least the cop is removed from the force for cause and not given a chance to resign.
8 the lone white boy // May 9, 2009 at 5:40 PM
well, i hope this officer can never take the stand again without having this incident of her lying thrown in her face. Making her a useless witness for further cases.
The whole “testilying” thing cops do disgusts me. I hope she gets fired.
I amazes me how the police can just lie and effect people’s lives seemingly without any remorse. Just an arrest on your record can effect your life in significant ways.
9 Florida // May 9, 2009 at 8:42 PM
I read a newspaper article awhile back about how MD concert attendees were arrested, taken to jail and strip searched because unbeknownst to them, the jazz fest they attended did not have a permit. Cops will do anything to up their arrest stats.
10 xdamousex // May 10, 2009 at 2:02 AM
“Yeah, I must have been,” Hoffman testified. “My apologies. It’s been over a year. I deal with a lot of these cases every day so my apologies.”
I wonder if that’s the excuse she gave him when she arrested him for DUI.
11 Paul // Aug 4, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Police outright lye, there’s no doubt in my mind.
I’m a local DJ and had a gig at a local Pub.
My brother went with me to the gig he was in his own car.
We split three 60 ounce pictures of beer between us over the 4 hours we were there for the gig.
They ambushed my brother as he left the Pub.
Busted the window in the passenger side of his car and made him drive into the medium of the road and charged him with DUI.
My Brother weights 270 lbs. according to the BAC calculator with 90 ounces of beer over 4 hours his BAC should have only been around .04/ half the legal limit. They said his Bac was .123.
That’s not possible with the amount he had to drink.
I raised hell about this took pictures of the place where they stopped him and everything I could, presented the facts and they blew me off.
One month later the same cops pulled me over in about the same spot on my way home from working all day and charged me with DUI.
The problem with this is that I didn’t have anything to drink at all and they arrested me and said I Blew a .123 BAC. Hmmm the same number as my Brother; this has ruined my life and cost me my job–(my livelihood) Thousand of dollars and any chance of ever having a life.
After seeing the video of how the Hollywood Police rear ended that girl and framed her for DUI, and got caught with there own video among other things, not to mention the State inspector that got fired for showing them how to trick the machine, Please note that they always make the arrest before they take you to the police station to make you blow in the machine
Tells me that
1. They can make the breathalyzer 8000 say anything they want it to with a little hand sanitizer on the finger when they hand you the mouth piece to blow in. And all they have to do if they don’t get the numbers they want is to unplug the machine and start all over.
2. They do this to keep up there performance standards and to acquire overtime pay for going to court and depot’s. Some of them make more in overtime pay than I made on my full time job before they got me fired.
I think they should be prosecuted for armed robbery because that is exactly what it is.
12 TAS // Apr 18, 2010 at 12:25 AM
Another crooked person associated with the criminal justice industry. We need a limited policing force like we need a limited government.
They do more harm than good. They are a waste of money and ruin so many lives. All we need you to do is respond to 911 calls and that is all we’ll pay for.
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