Where dirty cops go when they're outed

Ex Corvallis officer helps beat DUII raps
By Bennett Hall
Corvallis Gazette-Times

After a distinguished career of busting drunk drivers for the Corvallis Police Department, Dave Cox has a new job: helping motorists accused of driving under the influence beat the rap in court.

In six years as a Corvallis patrol officer, Cox made more than 1,000 impaired-driving arrests, far more than anyone else on the force, and won a statewide award for his prolific enforcement efforts. But he turned in his badge Nov. 1 after an internal investigation found he had wrongfully arrested a sober man for DUII.

Now Cox has resurfaced in Boise, Idaho, as a private investigator and the proprietor of Fact Finder Investigations Inc., an agency that specializes in the defense of DUII cases.

Reached by telephone last week, Cox declined to comment on his new career path. But the Fact Finders Web site touts his extensive law enforcement training in catching drunk and drug-impaired motorists and offers to put that expertise to work for individuals facing charges of driving under the influence.

Cox charges $255 for a DUII defense case review or $85 an hour for trial prep. He also offers to testify as an expert witness or re-create the events on the day of the arrest, right down to performing field sobriety tests and breath exams on the defendant — both drunk and sober (price quotes available on request).

In addition, Cox has developed a seminar for lawyers on DUII defense. Highlights include:

• Driving cues and signs of intoxication that police are looking for.

• Tricks and tactics police use in DUII cases.

• How to attack the results of a breath test; and

• How to get an officer to tell the jury your client’s side of the story.

According to the Web site, the class is approved for continuing legal education credit in several states. The going rate: $299 a person.

Cox apparently has even written a book on the subject.

Titled “How to Fight a DUI Arrest,” the book is promoted as a must-read for drunk-driving defendants.

“Dave Cox wrote How to Fight a DUI Arrest to assist those who have been wrongfully arrested for DUI,” the online sales pitch says. “More innocent people are arrested for DUI than for any other crime. In fact, as many as 300,000 innocent people are arrested for DUI every year. And millions of other people are stopped by the police and are worried that they, too, may get arrested even when they are not intoxicated.”

The volume is available in electronic form at a cost of $29.99 — or, at least, it was available. The Gazette-Times attempted to order a copy this week but was unsuccessful, and references to the book were subsequently removed from the Web site.

Local law enforcement officials said they were unaware of Cox’s new business venture but not necessarily surprised.

“It’s not uncommon for folks who once worked in law enforcement, once that’s not an option for them, to go into some other sort of investigative work,” said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson. “There’s nothing improper about that.”

Though Cox now lives in Idaho, he could find himself back in Oregon before too long. He is a co-defendant in two civil lawsuits against the city alleging false arrest for DUII.