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October 13, 2010

New Jersey DWI News: Monmouth County Cop Accused of Assault and Tampering with a Witness

As a former municipal prosecutor and New Jersey drunken driving defense lawyer, I certainly respect the law enforcement professionals who ensure the public’s safety on our roadways and everywhere else across the Garden State. And while I praise the efforts of police in bringing criminals to justice, I fully expect those same officers to carry themselves with dignity and honor at all times.

What I cannot abide is when a public servant who is sworn to uphold the laws of our state flaunts those laws or otherwise diminishes his office by breaking the very law he has promised to maintain. Drunk driving is one area of the law in which my office is very experienced. Recently a patrolman in the Little Silver, NJ, was charged with several serious offenses including assault and attempting to tamper with a witness.

Part of this officer’s job, when he was active on the force was to arrest motorists for driving while intoxicated. Any time an officer is charged with breaking the law, people start to wonder about the validity of previous arrests made by that individual, in this case arrests made against drivers who were believed to be driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to news articles, a grand jury had recently made an 11-count indictment against the veteran patrolman due to charges he assaulted a defendant and then asking a witness to lie or withhold information about the incident. The indictment included four counts of official misconduct, two each for obstruction of justice, aggravated assault and hindering his own apprehension, and one related to witness tampering.

An investigation was begun by the Monmouth County prosecutor and the Little Silver police after officials learned of an allegation that the officer used excessive force while on patrol.

The officer, who was well known for his work in catching and arresting drunk drivers, was initially suspended with pay. However, as soon as charges were filed last January, he was suspended without pay from his job.
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October 11, 2010

Bergen County, NJ, Drunken Driving Report: East Rutherford DWI Police Blotter

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Here in New Jersey, drunk driving arrests happen on a daily basis. Many times these incidents begin with a routine traffic stop for a sometimes minor traffic violation but soon turn into a full-blown DWI situation. Instances of motor vehicle accidents can also lead to a driver being slapped with a summons for driving under the influence of alcohol.

As a New Jersey drunk driving defense lawyer, my firm represents individuals who have been accused by state or local police of driving while intoxicated. A look at the local news shows a sampling of DWI arrests in the Bergen County area, which illustrate the typical kinds of traffic stops that lead to possible drunk driving charges and convictions.

One such stop occurred on a Monday evening when a concerned motorist called police on her cell phone to reports a possible drunken driver ahead of her on West Paterson Avenue in East Rutherford, NJ. Police responding to the call came upon a vehicle at the intersection of Paterson and Main. A 43-year-old man was in the vehicle seated in what police described as “a fully reclined position” and apparently asleep.

Waking up the out-of-state driver to request the man’s paperwork, officers reported that they detected the smell of alcohol on the driver’s breath. Suspecting that he was intoxicated, police had the man perform a number of field sobriety tests, which he reportedly failed. At that point, the officers arrested the man and charged him with DWI.

On another occasion, a patrolman going eastbound on Route 3 watched as another car passed him in the center lane and then reportedly swerved between the lane demarcations. The officer noted that the suspect vehicle nearly struck another motor vehicle at that time. Driving another 500 yards, the vehicle was observed pulling over in the right lane. The officer then called to the man via his patrol car’s PA system and told him to move his car.

Pulling the driver over into a nearby gas station, the officer asked the driver to exit the vehicle and perform several field sobriety tests. Failing those tests, the 45-year-old Rutherford resident arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Consequently, he was also charged with driving on a suspended license, careless driving, failure to maintain his lane and obstructing passage of other motor vehicles.
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October 9, 2010

New Jersey Man Acquitted of Vehicular Homicide in Fatal Drunk Driving-related ATV Accident

by Jonathan F. Marshall

According to news reports, a New Jersey man was found not guilty of homicide while driving drunk on an all-terrain vehicle. The original charges came from a DWI-related ATV accident back in 2009, which allegedly resulted in the death of another individual in Manchester Township.

Based on court records, 22-year-old Mark Renehan was declared not guilty in connection with the drunk driving-related death of his best friend, Jonathon Byram, on July 5, 2009. The charges at that time included homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, drunk driving, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

The young man’s attorney stated that because of the nature of the case, the prosecution should have done a more thorough examination of the circumstances before bringing the case to trial. As it ended up, the lawyer for Renehan said that the acquittal was a “just outcome.” The attorney went on to say that the jury came to the correct conclusion, especially considering that the defendant “lost his best friend” in the accident, making it a difficult trial for both his family and that of the victim’s.

October 7, 2010

New Jersey Drunk Driving Update: Understanding the DWI Arrest and Conviction Process — Part One

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Taking the wheel of a car or truck while intoxicated is never advisable, though many people do drive after drinking a beer, a glass of wine or shot of tequila. After doing so, the odds of getting pulled over can often go up many fold. As a New Jersey DWI defense attorney and former prosecuting attorney for municipalities in the state, I understand how drivers in the Garden State can get arrested for and charged with drunk driving by local or state police.

Knowing that you can be arrested for driving while intoxicated is fine for starters, but there are a number of other parts of the drunken driving arrest and conviction process that one should be familiar with. Naturally, impaired driving either through the consumption of alcohol or the use of prescription medication (drug DUI) is something that every drive should avoid for their own safety, if not for others.

As Ocean, Monmouth, Bergen and Union County drunk driving defense attorneys, we hope that the following pointers may be of some use to individuals currently facing DWI or DUI charges. Understanding these may help other New Jersey motorists avoid the pitfalls and legal troubles of being arrested or convicted of drunken driving. The process begins, simply enough, with a driver being stopped for a routine traffic violation, but it can quickly escalate to include taking a field sobriety test and then an Alcotest, or breathalyzer test.

Whether a driver is ultimately charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, drug DUI, or breath test refusal, will have much to do with the particular circumstances of the traffic stop and the driver’s level of inebriation.

Many might ponder under what circumstances a New Jersey police officer will likely stop them for drunken driving. Although an officer may not be aware at first that a motorist is, in fact, impaired by alcohol or prescription meds, he may decide to pull a driver over for any number of possible traffic violations.
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October 5, 2010

New Jersey Drunk Driving Defense News: Bergen County DWI and Drug DUI Police Blotter

by Jonathan F. Marshall

With so many drivers on the road it’s no surprise that drunken driving arrests occur every day all across the Garden State. As a New Jersey DWI defense attorney with offices throughout the state, I’ve dealt with a wide variety of motorists who have been charged with drunken driving or prescription drug DUI. Our Bergen County drunk driving defense lawyers have the experience to handle cases not unlike the ones reported below.

Lyndhurst

According to news articles, a car was pulled over as part of an early morning traffic stop which looked like a case of CDS possession and possible drug DUI. Officers had apparently noticed that the man’s passenger was not wearing a seat belt just before 4am on a Monday. Based on the police report, the stop occurred at the corner of Jackson Plc. and Rutherford Ave. in Lyndhurst. While interviewing the two occupants, patrolmen observed that the 19-year-old passenger had a quantity of the prescription drug Xanax on his person. Determining that the man did not have a prescription for the medication, police charged him with possession of prescription drugs and failure to wear a seatbelt.

October 3, 2010

New Jersey Drunk Driving News: Little Falls, NJ, Police Reports Multiple DWI Arrests in Passaic County

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Local municipalities throughout the Garden State make numerous traffic stops and subsequent arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol. As DUI defense attorneys understand the ins and outs of this state’s legal system.

Whether it is a case of drunk driving where the motorist has been arrested at one of many sobriety roadblocks, or if an individual is caught in possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle or otherwise operating a car under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance (CDS), the situation may be similar to numerous other arrests in the news every week.

Serving motorists in Monmouth, Bergen and other counties throughout the state, our suggestion is to always consult with a drunken driving defense lawyer to better understand your particular situation. The following list of recent DWI/DUI arrests by Little Falls, NJ, police is just an illustration of the kinds of drunk driving offenses that happen every day across the county.

Marijuana Possession in a Vehicle
On a Thursday evening in September, a patrolman stopped a driver for having illegally tinted windows on his vehicle. Walking up to the driver’s side of the car, the officer detected what he suspected was the odor of burning cannabis, or marijuana, emanating from the vehicle. During a voluntary search of the 19-year-old suspect’s car, the policeman discovered several plastic bags filled with marijuana. The officer subsequently arrested the man, who was reportedly a resident of Paterson, NJ.

DWI
During an early morning traffic stop on a Friday, Little Falls police officers pulled a vehicle over for speeding along a section of eastbound Route 46. The patrolmen noticed that the driver was exhibiting signs of being drunk. The officers then requested that the 28-year-old female driver perform several field sobriety tests to determine if the woman was impaired by alcohol. After failing the tests, police arrested the driver. A subsequent blood-alcohol content (BAC) test was performed by the officer indicating that the driver had a BAC in excess of the 0.08 percent limit. She was then arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI).
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September 30, 2010

New Jersey Drunk Driving Defense: Sea Isle, NJ, Police Trumpet DWI Checkpoint as a Success

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Most any New Jersey motorist should be able to tell you that drunken driving enforcement around the Garden State appears to have gotten more intense over the years. And it should come as no surprise, especially to those individuals who have been convicted of DWI, that the state police, local law enforcement departments and the courts have virtually no tolerance for drivers who choose to operate their vehicles while under the influence of alcohol, prescription drugs, marijuana and other controlled dangerous substances (CDS).

Increasingly, New Jersey police departments are operating drunk driving patrols and sobriety checkpoints, also known as DWI checkpoints. As a New Jersey drunk driving defense lawyer, this trend is not news to my office. We represent motorists from all across New Jersey — in counties such as Bergen, Monmouth and Ocean — who have been accused of driving while intoxicated either by beer, wine, hard liquor or drugs, prescription or illicit.

An article from Sea Isle, NJ, talked about the relative success of that municipality’s most recent sobriety checkpoint, which apparently caught few DWI offenders, but a number of other traffic violators. In all, just three drivers were either arrested or charged with drunk driving offenses. According to the news piece, on August 28, local police set up a drunken driving checkpoint on the 200 block of JFK Boulevard.

September 27, 2010

Bergen County DWI News: Drunk Driving Arrests may Rise with Increased Traffic Enforcement Patrols in Wyckoff

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Drunken driving enforcement is nothing new to motorists in New Jersey. With economic woes still reverberating across the country, the Garden State has seen its share of turmoil. It’s no doubt that many people choose to ease the pain with a drink or two at the local bar or friendly neighborhood gatherings. The trouble comes when an individual who may have had a bit too much to drink hits the road.

As a New Jersey DWI defense lawyer, I make it my job to assist drivers who have been accused of driving while intoxicated. As a Bergen County drunken driving attorney, I know that certain times of the year can make it especially common for drivers to be pulled over for driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to news reports, Wyckoff Township has announced an increase in traffic safety patrols, which are sure to the net the municipality more than a few DWI and drug DUI arrests. Based on reports, the township’s police department will be running “stepped up” traffic enforcement patrols through October 10. This surge in police presence is part of a national “Put the Brakes on Fatalities” campaign going on in towns and cities all around the U.S. Sobriety checkpoints and roadblocks could be part of this effort.

September 25, 2010

New Jersey DWI Update: Woman Loses License for Seven Months after Plea Deal with Cape May Prosecutors

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A Gloucester Co. resident recently pleaded guilty to driving under the influence following her arrest in late June in Middle Township. According to court records, 21-year-old Jena L. Davidson of Swedesboro will have her driving privileges withheld for seven months. In addition to her DWI-related drivers license suspension, the judge in the case also called for the woman to have an ignition interlock device installed for the next 12 months to ensure that she doesn’t drive drunk.

News reports also show that the New Jersey motorist will be required to complete 12 hours of training administered through the New Jersey Intoxicated Driver Resource Center. As part of her guilty plea, Davidson also paid penalties of $664 in fines and court costs.

As a New Jersey DWI defense lawyer, I’ve seen my share of tragic car accidents that could have turned out differently. As a drunk driving attorney, I always advise people to get a ride from a sober friend or make arrangements for alternate transportation in advance of “nights out on the town.”

September 25, 2010

Atlanta DUI SFST Instructor Course for Lawyers

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Colin Bonus, William Proetta, and myself attended a four day standardized field sobriety test (“SFST”) instructor course in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 23 -26. The objective of the seminar was to provide us with the skill and know how to instruct lawyers and police officers on how to properly administer and interpret SFST tests. I have been thoroughly impressed by the experience of our DWI Field Sobriety Instructor Anthony Palacios. He obviously possesses far more knowledge in this area than anyone I had the occasion of coming in contact with previously. We also had the opportunity to meet gifted drunk driving lawyers from states like Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Georgia.

One of the Atlanta DUI Lawyers I met at the course was Doug Chanco. It was nice to speak to Doug as he had a wealth of knowledge in Georgia DUI defense. It was interesting to learn about the different issues involved in defending cases in his Altanta Practice, especially those involving jury trials (unlike New Jersey where we have no juries).

It was fortunate that three members of our defense team were previously SFST certified and eligible to complete the course. The three of us are now instructors in SFST which will allow us to train and certify police officers and attorneys in SFST. I believe there are only five (5) NJ DWI Lawyers who have this expertise level in the state and three of them are at our office. I believe that the enhanced skills we gained at the course will prove beneficial to our clients in the future.