As New Jersey DWI defense attorneys, we can safely say that not every traffic stop by a state trooper or municipal patrolman will end up with an arrest or serious charges. That said, with a strong focus on curbing drunk driving across the Garden State, there are certainly a portion of those monthly police stops that do indeed result in an arrest or at least a summons to appear in court to answer for a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or impaired operation of a motor vehicle due to prescription drugs or even illicit substances like marijuana or cocaine.
In many of those DWI and drug DUI cases, as I and my staff of experienced trial lawyers understand very well, motorists are taken into custody and charged with one or more offenses pertaining to intoxicated driving. In such instances, even the most simple of driving mistakes can be a trigger for a DWI arrest. As motorists ourselves, it is easy to see how even the most law-abiding person might make an occasional improper turn or mistakenly change lanes without signaling.
Although the frequency of drunken driving arrests fluctuate from week to week, there always seem to be more than enough opportunity for a driver, who may only have had one or two drinks prior to getting behind the wheel, to be stopped for a minor infraction. Whether one is legally drunk or not, the mere appearance of being “not quite with it” or acting a little intoxicated during a traffic stop could cause a police officer to decide to make a DWI-related arrest.
Whatever the original action that caused the traffic stop and eventual drunk driving arrest, the end result could be hundred or even thousands of dollars in monetary penalties or the possible forfeiture of one’s driver’s license for an extended period. The news is full of stories recounting the trials of everyday men and women who find themselves, rightly or wrongly, on the other side of the law. The following are just a sample.
Barnegat Police Busy with Multiple DWI-DUI Arrests
Police reportedly pulled a 32-year-old motorcycle rider over after police were alerted to a possibly drunk biker around 2am in the morning along a stretch of Hawthorne Ln. According to the news item, a concerned citizen had observed a motorcyclist allegedly fall off his bike twice before officers arrived on the scene. Once there, the patrolmen arrested the local man with DWI, as well as driving operating a motor vehicle under a suspended license. That suspension, police stated, was due to a previous drunken driving conviction according to reports.
On a different occasion, a DWI arrest was performed along a portion of Gunning River Road when police responded to a citizen’s call reporting an apparent erratic driver. Officers stopped a car being driven by a 40-year-old Barnegat, NJ, man around 8:30pm on a Friday night. The man was subsequently arrested by the officer and charged with DWI as well as operating a motor vehicle under a suspended license from another earlier DWI conviction.
Several days later a driver was taken into custody following a traffic stop along a stretch of West Bay Ave. after the patrolman in charge observed a vehicle that failed to maintain its lane around 11pm. After activating his emergency lights, the officer reportedly noticed the driver allegedly throwing items from the driver’s window before coming to a stop. During the traffic stop, another officer investigated the scene of the tossed contraband and found three folds of heroin. The driver was eventually hit with possession of heroin in a motor vehicle.
Monmouth County Police Blotter, APP.com, July 9, 2013