DUI charge with accident

Question: A friend of my recently crashed his car outside his apartment in Woodland Hills, CA. The police said they saw him enter his house and he did not stop when he was called. He was not pursued after this. He also did not report the accident until the following day when seeking the location of the car. He later claimed in a police statement that he does not speak any English which is true and needed to go home to call for advice as to what to do based on the accident. He did returned to the car when he noticed the car being towed away by the police. Can he be charged with DUI?
Answer: It is possible that he can be charged with DUI, but there are a lot of defenses in cases like this. Assuming the police claim to have seen driving and the accident (which may not be the case), then it doesn’t appear that they had any direct contact with your friend, no breath or blood test results, no refusal allegation (since they apparently never got the chance to ask him to submit to it), etc. If the police did not try to contact your friend after allegedly called, then in my opinion…they didn’t try very hard.
Have your friend call me to discuss his case in more detail. As a DUI defense attorney, this sounds like a good case to fight.
Sincerely,
Phil Hache
DUI Defense attorney