Assistant State Attorney With The Miami-Dade County Prosecute 6,000 Driving Under The Influence Cases, Each Year

Stephen K. Talpins is an Assistant State Attorney with the Miami-Dade County (Florida) State
Attorney’s Office (SAO). Mr. Talpins is the Chief of the County Court Division. He supervises
between 30 and 50 Assistant State Attorneys in the prosecution of over 100,000 misdemeanor
cases, including 6,000 Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases, each year. Mr. Talpins also
serves on the Statewide Technical Advisory Committee on DWI Enforcement and Prosecution and the Miami-Dade County Association Chiefs of Police (DCACP) Traffic Enforcement Committee.

In 1994 and 1995, Mr. Talpins served as Deputy Chief Miami-Dade County , then Chief, of the DWI/Traffic Division. During that time, Mr. Talpins helped re-write the SAO’s DWI/Traffic training manual and won en masse hearings regarding the police departments’ failure to videotape DWI subjects and the admissibility of low volume breath samples. Additionally, Mr. Talpins prepared for, argued and won a precedent setting en masse Frye hearing concerning the admissibility of Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) testimony and evidence, including the field sobriety and horizontal gaze nystagmus tests.

The National Commission Against Drunk Driving recognized Mr. Talpins’ efforts in bestowing its Adjudication Award for Outstanding Prosecution on him. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have also honored Mr. Talpins. In 1995, the SAO promoted Mr. Talpins to the Felony Division. In 1997, Mr. Talpins helped create the SAO’s Multi-Agency Gang Strike Force (GSF) in Miami-Dade County . Mr. Talpins prosecuted gang racketeering (RICO) cases from 1997 until 2000, when the SAO promoted Mr. Talpins to a Division Chief position in the Felony Division. In 2001, the SAO promoted Mr. Talpins to Chief of the County Court Division Miami-Dade County .

Mr. Talpins authored several articles pertaining to the DRE program and its components, andlectured or presented on DWI and DRE issues for a myriad of groups. Mr. Talpins graduated from Northwestern University with a BS in Speech Communications in 1989. He graduated from the University of Miami School of Law, cum laude, in 1992.

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