Death by Auto

June 29, 2009

New Jersey Man Gets Seven Years in Prison for Fatal DWI Traffic Accident

A New Jersey court has sentenced a Glassboro, NJ, man to seven years in prison for a 2008 drunk driving accident that caused the death of his friend. Arthur L. Anwar Jr., 53, pled guilty to vehicular homicide last Friday for the fatal DWI traffic accident in Monroe Township last December 21. The Superior Court judge handed down the sentence as recommended by the assistant Gloucester County prosecutor for the second-degree offense of causing a death while driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to earlier reports, the seven-year jail term was offered in exchange for a guilty plea. As a New Jersey drunk driving defense lawyer and former municipal prosecutor myself, I have vast experience with cases just like this one. In this instance, if the defendant had held out for a jury trial, he could have received a maximum of 10 years for the death of his friend, 24-year-old Arthur L. Davis, also from Glassboro. The defense’s case was complicated by alleged evidence of cocaine found on the suspect, though no drug DUI charges were actually levied.

According to police reports, the deadly accident happened in the early morning hours a few days before Christmas. Leaving from a bar in Glassboro, Anwar was driving his 1997 Mazda, with Davis in the front passenger seat, when the car crashed into the back of a dump truck on Glassboro Road in Monroe Township. Davis died in the hospital from multiple injuries not long after the collision. Anwar had admitted to being the driver of the vehicle and when police measured his blood alcohol content (BAC) they foudn it to be an incredible 0.205 — two and one-half times greater than the legal limit in New Jersey.

June 11, 2009

New Jersey Drunk Driving Legislation Calls for Mandatory Ignition Interlocks for DWI Offenders

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Future convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol could result in the offender’s vehicle being fitted with a type of breathalyzer-ignition interlock device if drunk driving legislation in Trenton continues to move foward. The specter of ignition interlocks for nearly all DWI offenses has been raised this time with the help of three New Jersey assemblymen, Gordon Johnson, Nelson Albano and Patrick Diegnan.

Under the proposed legislation (A-3073), any person convicted of a second, third or subsequent DWI offense would be required to have an ignition interlock device installed on all vehicles they either lease or own, or any vehicle that the person would operate for work, or other purposes, during their driver’s license suspension period.

Even first offenders would be affected. If a person convicted of a first-time DWI had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.15 percent or higher, the law would require the offender to have the device installed on his or her vehicle. In addition, the current legislation calls for the device to remain installed for six to 12 months following restoration of the individual’s driver’s license. The courts would retain discretion as provided under current law to require installation of the device for all other first offenders.

June 5, 2009

Homicide Charges Dropped in New Jersey DWI Fatality Case

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Family members of a pedestrian killed last summer in Belmar by a drunk driver have expressed their anger over the recent reduction in charges against the defendant in the case. Despite having struck and killed 22-year-old Christopher Nowak while driving drunk on New Jersey’s Route 35, Mark Rich of Neptune City, NJ, now faces only a driving while intoxicated charge that carries with it a $500 fine, a 30-day maximum jail sentence, and a one-year license suspension.

Last December, a grand jury turned down an indictment of vehicular homicide against Rich, 53, that would have called for a maximum of 10 years in prison. Upon the grand jury’s rejection of the indictment, the case was handed back to municipal court, where Rich pleaded guilty this past Wednesday to DWI. According to reports, the Belmar prosecutor in the case requested that the judge also dismiss the other charge of careless driving. This has enraged the victim’s family.

Any loss of life through an automobile accident is a tragic event, but the facts of this case make for a difficult defense, as well as prosecution. Being a New Jersey DWI Defense Attorney and former municipal prosecutor myself, I have been involved in cases that seemed clear cut on their face, but which had many grey areas.

May 13, 2009

New Jersey Man Charged with DWI Traffic Death of Stepdaughter

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A New Jersey man accused of driving while intoxicated and causing a fatality in the process has recently been arraigned in district court on charges of DWI and vehicular manslaughter, just weeks after the accident that killed his former stepdaughter. The tragic drunk driving accident happened on April 23 in Bethlehem Township, PA, when Thomas A. Parsons drove his car into a tree, killing his 28-year-old passenger, Kelly Rice.

Parsons was arraigned on that state’s charge of homicide by vehicle while DUI, in a Northampton County courtroom. Local prosecutor, John Morganelli, said he approved the charges against the 43-year-old from Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

According to reports, Rice was riding home with Parsons from a Static-X concert at Crocodile Rock in Allentown when the crash occurred. They were driving on Johnston Drive in Bethlehem Township when the car smashed into a tree, killing the 28-year-old Rice. Morganelli said Parsons’ blood-alcohol content was 0.18, more than double the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

April 30, 2009

Could New Jersey DWI Laws Soon Apply to Drowsy Driving?

by Jonathan F. Marshall

It sure doesn’t sound like drunk driving, but I bet this has happened to you or someone you know. You’re driving home a bit tired after working a double shift in Jersey City, or trying to squeeze in that last 50 miles returning from a very full weekend in Atlantic City. Just trying to stay awake long enough to get home, park the car and climb into bed. That’s not the same as driving while intoxicated, or is it?

Whether it’s a paperwork backlog at work, working the graveyard shift at a second job, or spending a sleepless night tending to a sick child, the result is the same. Operating a vehicle when you’ve had little or no sleep can be a recipe for disaster. Nodding off on the Garden State Parkway can have a deadly outcome.

And the consequences can be serious, especially here in New Jersey. We live in the only state in the Union that makes drowsy driving a crime when it’s found to be the cause of a fatal crash — classified as recklessness under the state’s vehicular homicide statute. And it’s not unreasonable that drowsy driving could one day become as serious an offense as DWI.

April 19, 2009

Glassboro, NJ, DWI Suspect Gets Plea Deal from Gloucester Prosecutors

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A Glassboro, New Jersey, man arrested for a DWI traffic death in Gloucester Country late last year has been offered seven years in jail in exchange for a guilty plea — three years less than the maximum 10 years he could face if convicted in a jury trial. Charges of driving while intoxicated and vehicular homicide, combined with alleged evidence of cocaine (although no DUI charges were brought), make this a challenging case for the defense.

According to a recent report, attorneys for Arthur Anwar Jr. made a motion to have the court reduce his bail, but that has been rejected apparently due to the severity of the offense. At a bail hearing last Friday, Superior Court Judge Christine Allen-Jackson denied the motion to reduce the $75,000 bail, on which Anwar has been held since his arrest on December 21, 2008. The case remains open as both sides consider their next steps.

Anwar’s drunk driving arrest stems from a lethal accident that happened just days before Christmas. According to police, the 53-year-old and a friend had left the Down on Main Street bar in Glassboro and were riding in his 1997 Mazda 626. At about 2 a.m., the vehicle plowed into the back of a dump truck on Glassboro Road in Monroe Township. The crash was so horrific that emergency personnel had to pry open the mangled sedan to remove the passenger. That man, Arthur Davis, 24, later died from multiple injuries at Cooper Hospital in Camden.

April 10, 2009

Angels’ Pitcher, Nick Adenhart, Killed by Drunk Driver in California

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Another DWI traffic death has rocked the professional sports world. Baseball fans and players alike were shocked and saddened by yesterday’s untimely death of 22-year-old Angels’ pitcher, Nick Adenhart, who was killed when the vehicle in which he was riding was broadsided by a suspected drunk driver in Fullerton, California. The incident is all the more tragic as authorities report that the driver who caused the accident was on a suspended license for a previous DUI conviction.

The collision occurred early in the morning of April 9, just hours after the rookie pitcher threw six scoreless innings against the Oakland As in his forth major league start. According to police reports, a minivan driven by Andrew Gallo, 22, allegedly ran a red light and smashed into the side of the Mitsubishi Eclipse carrying Adenhart and three others. The tremendous force of the crash sent the Eclipse across the intersection and into a nearby utility pole.

Courtney Stewart, 20, the driver of the Mitsubishi, as well as another passenger, Henry Nigel Person, 25, both died at the scene. Adenhart survived the impact but later died at UC-Irvine Medical Center. Only one of the four, Jon Wilhite, 24, lived through the horrendous ordeal. He was listed in critical condition but is expected to pull through.

April 4, 2009

DWI Death on New Jersey’s Atlantic City Expressway Precipitates Arrest of Kixx Soccer Player

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Professional indoor soccer player, Mathew J. Maher, of the Philadelphia Kixx was recently arrested and charged with drunk driving and allegedly causing the death of a Pennsylvania man on the Atlantic City Expressway earlier this month.

According to police, Maher, 24, of Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey, was driving a 2007 Cadillac Escalade eastbound shortly before 3 a.m. on March 7. The police report alleges that Maher, a defender for the Kixx indoor soccer team, was speeding and under the influence of alcohol when his vehicle rear-ended a Chrysler minivan being driven by Hort Kap, 55, of Philadelphia.

According to New Jersey State Police Sgt. Julian Castellanos, Maher’s Cadillac hit Kap’s Chrysler Town and County in the right lane, forcing the van into a guardrail, where it flipped and partially ejected its driver. Kap was pronounced dead at the scene. Police reported that Maher’s Escalade hit the guardrail with such force that one of the wheels separated from the vehicle and was thrown through the air some distance.

A former Temple University soccer star, Maher was initially charged with driving while intoxicated. Following the crash, he was given a field sobriety test and later had blood drawn at Kessler Memorial Hospital in Hammonton, where he was taken for treatment of his injuries in the accident.

Further investigation of the accident resulted in a charge of aggravated manslaughter being issued against Maher. If convicted of this first-degree offense, the young athlete could receive up to 30 years in jail, as well as being fined upward of $200,000. Maher was taken into custody March 20, after turning himself in to authorities.

Kixx player arrested for drunk driving death on NJ highway, NJ.com, March 20, 2009

Kixx player charged with DWI in Hamilton Township, NJ.com, March 10, 2009