DWI Stops

May 5, 2009

New Jersey DWI / DUI Police Blotter

Hackettstown — In what initially could have been a DWI drug arrest on Saturday, April 25, a K-9 police unit from Washington Township found 34 bags of heroin in a vehicle occupied by a young woman and a 22-year-old man from Fairfield, NJ. The man was eventually charged with possession of heroin and a hypodermic needle following the traffic stop on Stiger Street. He was then sent to the Warren County jail with bail set at $5,000. The 18-year-old female driver and owner of the vehicle was issued a summons for a vehicle violation and released.

Montville — A number of teenagers were charged with underage alcohol possession by police who were responding to a Saturday night complaint regarding a large party just off Bonnie View Lane. Upon arriving at around 10:30 p.m., officers encountered a large group of minors leaving the scene. A juvenile driver was also charged with violation of his provisional driver’s license. There were no arrests for underage DWI.

Montville — An 18-year-old man from Pine Brook, New Jersey, was charged with possession of marijuana in a vehicle on the evening of Friday, April 24, after police checked a car parked on Briarcliff Road with four people inside. A juvenile that was present was charged with obstruction.

May 2, 2009

DWI Injury Accident Caused by New Jersey Man with Long History of Drunk Driving

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Talk about your repeat drunk driving offenders, East Rutherford resident, Shaun Campbell, will surely have a place in the record books. According to reports, the 39-year-old already had a dozen DWI convictions, and 78 license suspensions, prior to a recent accident when he allegedly caused a head-on crash with another driver and his four-year-old daughter at the intersection of South Street and Spring Valley Road in Morris Township.

Police say that Campbell was allegedly intoxicated when he ran his SUV into another vehicle in Morristown on Thursday, April 23. Immediately following the accident, the suspect was viewed running from the scene into nearby Loantaka Park in an effort to escape from police. All of this happened while Campbell’s license was suspended by the state.

Campbell was caught and initially charged with driving while intoxicated and obstruction of justice. However, authorities also hit him last Wednesday with a charge of fourth-degree assault-by-auto in connection with this most recent accident.

April 30, 2009

Could New Jersey DWI Laws Soon Apply to Drowsy Driving?

by Jonathan F. Marshall

It sure doesn’t sound like drunk driving, but I bet this has happened to you or someone you know. You’re driving home a bit tired after working a double shift in Jersey City, or trying to squeeze in that last 50 miles returning from a very full weekend in Atlantic City. Just trying to stay awake long enough to get home, park the car and climb into bed. That’s not the same as driving while intoxicated, or is it?

Whether it’s a paperwork backlog at work, working the graveyard shift at a second job, or spending a sleepless night tending to a sick child, the result is the same. Operating a vehicle when you’ve had little or no sleep can be a recipe for disaster. Nodding off on the Garden State Parkway can have a deadly outcome.

And the consequences can be serious, especially here in New Jersey. We live in the only state in the Union that makes drowsy driving a crime when it’s found to be the cause of a fatal crash — classified as recklessness under the state’s vehicular homicide statute. And it’s not unreasonable that drowsy driving could one day become as serious an offense as DWI.

April 28, 2009

New Jersey Drunk Driving Police Blotter

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Boonton — Police charged a 58-year-old Boonton Township, NJ, man with DWI, reckless driving and not having insurance for his vehicle. The allegedly intoxicated man was picked up by police during the late afternoon on Saturday, April 25, and released pending an appearance in court.

Boonton — A woman from Kinnelon was pulled over by police for drunk driving, as well as reckless driving. The 45-year-old was stopped just after 9 p.m. and subsequently released pending appearance in court at a later date.

Madison — In what could possibly have been a drug DUI arrest, as 20-year-old Westfield man was arrested on Thursday, April 23, after police responded to a call regarding an occupant of a vehicle snorting drugs on Loveland Street. The vehicle apparently left that location, as the police pulled the vehicle over on Green Village Road, where they arrested the young man after noticing a white powdery substance on the man’s lips. According to authorities, the arresting officer found a white tube and the driver admitted that he had been snorting oxycodone. Police arrested and charged the man with possession of drug paraphernalia, and then released him shortly thereafter.

April 23, 2009

Intoxicated Teen Arrested for Assault by Auto in Jersey City

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A 19-year-old Bayonne man, already up on charges for driving while intoxicated, , has now been slapped with two counts of aggravated assault as a result of an accident last Saturday that left two young girls in critical condition, one of them paralyzed perhaps for life. The teen was arraigned Tuesday on DWI and assault charges in Jersey City.

This type of drunk driving tragedy is charged with emotion and considerable sadness, not only for the victims and their families, but also for the relatives of the young suspect. Although it appears that this is the teen’s first DWI arrest, the addition of aggravated assault charges makes it all the more important for him to have a qualified legal professional on his side. The attorneys at The Law Offices of John F. Marshall have experience defending cases just like this one.

The events leading up to Tuesday’s court appearance transpired, according to police, in the early morning hours of April 18. Witnesses stated that a 1996 Honda Passport allegedly driven by Michael Garbacki drove straight into a group of people including two young women. The Honda not only injured the girls, but also crashed into two other cars in a parking area beside Port Jersey Boulevard just before 2 a.m.

April 22, 2009

Bayonne, NJ, Man Arrested for DWI After Hoboken Police Chase

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Downtown Hoboken, New Jersey, was the scene of a DWI arrest this past Sunday following what could have easily been a deadly car chase between police and an allegedly intoxicated 23-year-old Bayonne man. Police reported that the suspect refused to pull over and then led them on a chase, which almost resulted in the fleeing driver hitting another vehicle.

By the time it was all over, police had charged Michael M. Leahey with resisting arrest, as well as eluding an officer. He also received summonses for several other offenses, including failure to obey a traffic signal, operating a vehicle the wrong way on a one-way street, driving while intoxicated and refusal to submit to a Breathalyzer test.

The incident began in the early morning hours, after police observed a vehicle headed the wrong way on Hudson Street — a one-way street. Police gave chase with lights and sirens on, but the man reportedly refused to pull his Buick over, instead turning onto First Street so fast that his vehicle briefly fishtailed before the driver regained control.

April 19, 2009

Glassboro, NJ, DWI Suspect Gets Plea Deal from Gloucester Prosecutors

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A Glassboro, New Jersey, man arrested for a DWI traffic death in Gloucester Country late last year has been offered seven years in jail in exchange for a guilty plea — three years less than the maximum 10 years he could face if convicted in a jury trial. Charges of driving while intoxicated and vehicular homicide, combined with alleged evidence of cocaine (although no DUI charges were brought), make this a challenging case for the defense.

According to a recent report, attorneys for Arthur Anwar Jr. made a motion to have the court reduce his bail, but that has been rejected apparently due to the severity of the offense. At a bail hearing last Friday, Superior Court Judge Christine Allen-Jackson denied the motion to reduce the $75,000 bail, on which Anwar has been held since his arrest on December 21, 2008. The case remains open as both sides consider their next steps.

Anwar’s drunk driving arrest stems from a lethal accident that happened just days before Christmas. According to police, the 53-year-old and a friend had left the Down on Main Street bar in Glassboro and were riding in his 1997 Mazda 626. At about 2 a.m., the vehicle plowed into the back of a dump truck on Glassboro Road in Monroe Township. The crash was so horrific that emergency personnel had to pry open the mangled sedan to remove the passenger. That man, Arthur Davis, 24, later died from multiple injuries at Cooper Hospital in Camden.

April 16, 2009

Another DWI Checkpoint Scheduled for Middletown NJ

by Jonathan F. Marshall

It seems that the Monmouth County DWI Task Force has an affinity for Middletown NJ. The organization has scheduled another DWI checkpoint in the municipality. This is at least the second such roadblock in the municipality. We can only assume that the prior roadblock proved successful insofar as the same location has been selected in Monmouth County.

The checkpoint is scheduled for Friday night through Saturday morning. The DWI detail is intended to detect drivers who are operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and shall run from 11:00 p.m. through 3:00 a.m. on Route 35 North. Representatives of the Task Force and the Middletown Police shall test individuals in the parking lot of Hudson City Savings Bank.

A prerequisite to conducting a valid roadblock in NJ is statistical data demonstrating that the location selected has a high incident of driving while intoxicated. The fact that this particular location has been selected a second time manifests that Route 35 North is ripe for DWI violations. This does not come as a shock in view of the significant number of DWI and refusal cases which our NJ DWI Defense Attorneys handle in Middletown.

April 16, 2009

DWI Arrest Follows Near-miss with New Jersey Police Officer

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A suspected drunk driver steered her speeding SUV within inches of a Branchburg Township police officer as he was conducting another traffic stop the evening of April 10. The obviously intoxicated driver of the SUV was later found to have 14-year-old minor riding with her, police said.

The incident occurred on Route 28 in the township’s North Branch section just before 8 p.m. The officer, Fred Ghanim, had just stopped a vehicle for speeding and was getting out of his cruiser to issue a non-DWI summons. Just as the officer stepped out his vehicle, but before he could close the driver door, a silver SUV swerved in Ghanim’s direction at a high rate of speed.

According to the report, Officer Ghanim pulled the door tight against his body, effectively sandwiching himself between the body of the police cruiser and the driver’s door as the SUV sped past.

It must be said, at this point, that far too many law enforcement professionals lose their lives in the line of duty, but the senseless deaths caused by drunken drivers are all the more sad, and preventable. Near-miss situations like this one illustrate the razor’s edge between life and death that public safety personnel face every day while patroling our nation’s roadways.

Fortunately, this incident ended with no serious injuries. Ghanim reported that the SUV missed his door by about an inch before the driver swerved back into her lane.

Soon after, police stopped the 38-year-old SUV driver, Betsy L. Nash of North Branch, who had the odor of alcohol on her breath. This prompted officers to ask her to perform a field sobriety test. She failed that test and was subsequently given a blood alcohol test, which turned up a reading of 0.13 percent — significantly over the legal limit in New Jersey.

Nash was charged with several counts, including careless driving, DWI, and driving while intoxicated with a minor on board. She was later released to a member of her family. Considering how close she came to injuring or even killing a law enforcement office, she was extremely fortunate.

If you are pulled over by police and found to have a BAC of 0.08 percent or more, you will be charged with DWI, if arrested. You could face a fine and jail time if convicted. Any driver issued a summons for DWI is encouraged to contact a New Jersey DWI Attorney. Our legal team is available around the clock to help you.

Branchburg Police Plotter, MyCentralJersey.com, April 14, 2009

April 14, 2009

NJ Man Arrested for DWI by New York State Troopers

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A 39-year-old man from Hohokus, New Jersey, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated early Friday morning after a traffic stop on Albany Post Road in Cortlandt, NY. State Troopers charged the man and 11 other motorists with DWI during a string of traffic stops in Westchester and Putnam counties over the course of the long holiday weekend, mostly in the early hours of the day, according to authorities.

Though a number of the drivers were from out of state, most were from the local area. One local man in particular, a 32-year-old with a previous DWI conviction, who was stopped just before 5 a.m. on Sunday, was charged with multiple counts. The list included driving while intoxicated, first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, felonies, unlawful possession of marijuana and refusal to submit to a breath test, according to the police report. In this instance, the man’s drunk driving charge was bumped up to a felony due to his previous DWI conviction, which occurred less than 10 years ago.

Most, however, were charged with misdemeanor DWI. Another local man was charged with driving while intoxicated and aggravated DWI, both misdemeanors, following a 2:15 a.m. traffic stop Sunday morning. Police said that the aggravated DWI charge was due the man’s blood-alcohol level being in excess of 0.18 percent — fully 0.10 percent beyond the legal threshold for driving while intoxicated in New York State.