How Manassas Treats DUI Cases

In Manassas, there is the City of Manassas, there is City of Manassas Park, and there are Prince William County police officers. All the cases are handled in essentially the same way except Manassas Park. Manassas Park actually has its own city attorney that the City of Manassas Park hires to represent them. Otherwise, offenses that occur within Manassas are handled by the prosecution’s office or the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office for Prince William. An officer from that jurisdiction will arrest the person for DUI and then the case is turned over to the prosecution’s office or the City Attorney’s Office. The case progresses from there.

Manassas treats DUI cases very seriously. They take elevated BACs very seriously and they take second and third offense cases extraordinarily seriously. DUIs are prosecuted zealously in Manassas.

Court System in Manassas

If we’re talking about General District Court, there are currently three seated judges. There is Judge Hudson, Judge Smith, and Judge Jarvis. Judge Steketee recently retired in January, so there are also substitute judges that serve in the time that he is not there. There are about 15 prosecutors that practice in General District Court. They typically handle one courtroom per week and rotate, so you may not have the same judge or the same prosecutor in any of your court days if they don’t follow their cases. You can expect to have your case heard and judged according to what the evidence shows.

Judges in Manassas DUI Cases

Our judges treat DUI cases very seriously for many reasons. Some of our judges are actually Manassas residents, so DUIs are taken seriously because the community in which they live is “endangered,” not just the individual who is the driver. We all share our roads and our judges try to put that in perspective because it is a very serious issue. They take it very seriously but they will find the person not guilty if the facts do not rise to a level of guilt. They don’t rubber stamp guilt on any individual just because they are charged.

Prosecutors in Manassas DUI Cases

The job of the prosecutors is to represent the interests of the Commonwealth of Virginia, so they have to take DUI cases very seriously and they do. They also listen to facts. They have a critical eye on whether the facts are laid out in such a way that the DUI is provable. They don’t ignore what the facts show and they follow the law.