DUI case against McNair formally ends
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A final ruling in the DUI case against Titans quarterback Steve McNair ended a year of legal wrangling which saw a judge toss out key evidence that crippled the prosecution. A judge formally dismissed the DUI and illegal gun possession charges Friday, after earlier ruling that police didn’t have sufficient reason to pull over McNair in the first place. McNair was arrested in May 2003 while driving his sport utility vehicle in downtown Nashville. His blood alcohol content registered at 0.18%, almost twice the 0.10 level then used to define driving under the influence, according to a police report. The DUI threshold has since been lowered to 0.08%. Judge Cheryl Blackburn had ruled that a police video didn’t show McNair’s vehicle weaving outside his lane of traffic and that officer Shawn Taylor did not have a reason to stop him. That ruling meant all evidence gathered after the stop, including a gun found in McNair’s car and the blood alcohol test, was excluded. McNair’s attorney had questioned whether a police officer in the case had targeted McNair because of his celebrity status. Blackburn, in her decision to suppress the evidence, had said there was no proof police were targeting McNair. |