New Jersey has some of the toughest drunk driving laws in the country. Unlike most states, provisional licenses or work permit licenses are not permitted for individuals convicted of driving while intoxicated or driving while impaired. Unlike most states, most of the defenses that are available in other states have been eviscerated in New Jersey. Be honest, wining a drunk driving charge in New Jersey is very difficult, and an honest lawyer, even one you only specializes in these types of cases will admit such.
However, after trying drunk driving cases in New Jersey for over twenty-one years I have won my share of DWI cases. To win these types of cases the attorney must be bold and creative and be tenacious leaving no stone unturned.
Just recently, on October 14, 2011, in a Monmouth County town I was able to obtain the ultimate victor. In this case the defendant was driving on the revoked list from a previous DWI suspension. He was stopped on a major highway and his Alcotest reading was three times the limit. The case was dismissed on a motion to suppress, that being, there was no probable cause for the automobile stop. In this case the municipal police officer had been targeting a local go-go bar, by monitoring the vehicles in the parking lot and checking license plates for vehicles registered to motorist with expired or revoked licenses. In this case the officer attempted to hide this targeted profiling by claiming that he was involved in the investigation of another gas station robbery a few hours before which involved a black SUV, the same type of vehicle my client was driving. The officer then claimed that some time later he observed this car pass him on the highway, which prompted the automobile stop.
The fact presented in this case presented a treasure trove of investigation of facts to be uncovered with pretrial discovery motions. Accordingly, in this case I requested all the dispatcher tapes, and CAD reports of the gas station robbery to determine the time that the officer began his investigation of that incident. I also requested the Mobile Data Terminal entry, specifically, the time and date that the request for the license check was made at the go-go bar. Because the prosecutor, who was extremely honest, agreed that this information was essential to my motion to suppress, I prepared a consent order for the discovery requested, which the Court signed.
These discovery requests were made to confirm my suspicion that the officer had been lying. The hutch was correct, the police officer did lie and his police report was bogus, because the prosecutor was stonewalled by the police department, and never provided the discovery to confirm the officer’s story.
The municipal court judge had no alternative but to dismiss the case in its entirety when after almost eight months the discovery requested was never supplied.
For more information on how to win your drunk driving case go to CriminalDefenseNJ.com
Law Office of Vincent J. Sanzone, Jr.
Elizabeth, New Jersey
October 20, 2011
