Driving While Intoxicated Charges Dismissed
An associate from my office just finished representing an individual who was charged with driving while intoxicated, failure to maintain lane and careless driving in Bergen County New Jersey. The defendant was involved a major motor vehicle accident; one which left two cars totaled and placed the defendant in the hospital. Since this was the defendant’s first dwi charge, if he was convicted, he could lose his license for up to twelve months. In addition, since the defendant was charged with driving while intoxicated, the police could have also been charged him with assault by auto as a result of this incident.
The facts of the case are straight forward. The defendant end up crossing the double yellow lines and crashing head on with an oncoming car. The local police tried to administer the field sobriety tests, but due to the defendant’s physical and mental condition they terminated the test. While on the way to the hospital the defendant admitted to the officers that he had taken two Oxycontin pills earlier on in the day. While at the hospital the defendant supplied the State with both a blood and urine sample. Both came back positive for Oxycontin.
Once the associate got an opportunity to review the discovery it became apparent that the state was going to have severe issues proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt. Most importantly the arresting officers failed to have a DRE (Drug Recognition Expert) test the defendant to make sure that he was actually under the influence at the time of the accident. In addition, the officers failed to obtain a search warrant prior to obtaining the Defendant’s blood. Geared with this information, my associate was able to convince the State that they had to dismiss the driving while intoxicated charge as they would be unable to proof their cases beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall is an experienced Bergen County DWI defense firm. We have four former Municipal Court Prosecutor’s on staff. We have five attorneys who are certified in administering the Alcotest Machine and three of those attorneys are also certified to administer the Field Sobriety Tests. If you or someone you know has been charged with DUI in towns like Mahwah, Fort Lee, Elmwood Park, East Rutherford or elsewhere in Bergen County, we can help. Please contact any one of our Bergen County Offices for a free initial consultation.