Story highlights Danny Cevallos: Tiger Woods should not have talked or complied with police tests

Cevallos: He then would have been able to control narrative and preserve his brand

Danny Cevallos (@CevallosLaw) is a CNN legal analyst and an attorney practicing in the areas of personal injury, wrongful conviction and criminal defense in New York, Pennsylvania and the US Virgin Islands. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Early Monday, police in Jupiter, Florida, discovered Tiger Woods in his 2015 Mercedes-Benz on the side of the road, its brake lights illuminated and right turn signal flashing. He was by himself and wearing his seat belt, but the vehicle showed signs of "fresh damage" on the driver's side of the vehicle.

Woods was found asleep at the wheel and was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. Several field sobriety tests and breath and urine testing followed. He also reportedly admitted to prescriptions for Vicodin and other medication.

Danny Cevallos

But Woods made a mistake in his admission. He would have been better off if he had refused all testing and requests for information by law enforcement.

In other words, Woods' case was made against him not when police found him snoozing in his car, but after he started talking and consenting to tests.

The police probably had grounds to stop the car. The report indicates the vehicle was stopped partially in the bike lane and in the road. And even if he had been pulled over in the shoulder and parked, police officers may conduct welfare checks of parked cars. These are considered consensual and therefore constitutional encounters.

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