Our office recently defended a younger client who had been pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike for speeding. After being stopped, the State Trooper suspected he may have been drinking based on the smell of alcohol on our client’s breath and other indicators. He requested that he exit the car and perform standardized field sobriety testing to assess whether he was intoxicated. Based on our client’s actions and results of the roadside tests, he was placed under arrest for DWI and brought to the station to take the breathalyzer, also called the Alcotest here in New Jersey.
Our client was adamant that he was not drunk and would need plead to a DWI charge and lose his license for a prolonged period of time. So our attorneys began putting the prosecutor to his burden to provide the evidence and prove the allegations against our client. Both sides dug in and the case continued for approximately 8 months while the State tried everything they could do to gather the necessary evidence to substantiate the charges against our client. During that time we had gotten the municipal judge to sign an order mandating that the prosecutor provide the evidence within a limited amount of time or the case could be dismissed.
Finally, when we were able to gather the evidence for the breathalyzer it became obvious that our client’s breath sample was not 0.08%. That combined with the fact that the prosecutor had not turned over the car video from the State Police, gave us enough leverage to have the DWI dismissed outright. However, since our client was under the age of 21 years old at the time of the arrest he was not allowed to consume any amount of alcohol so he agreed to plea to 39:4-50.14 an underage driver who consumes alcohol, although it does not rise to the level of intoxication. Based on his plea he only lost his license for a period of 30 days. If you or your loved one has been charged with driving while intoxicated that contact a Carteret DWI Attorney today for a free consultation.
