According to a news article in 2010, Point Pleasant police in New Jersey picked up a teen, who allegedly crashed a stolen vehicle on a Sunday morning after a police pursuit. The 15-year-old erratically drove a 1996 Dodge Ram pickup without its headlamps around 4:00 am. When the officers caught up with the male teen, after he lost control of the pickup, the teen jumped out of the vehicle to run away on foot. When arrested, the police reported the teen was driving while intoxicated, and charged him with receiving stolen property, not stopping for the police, driving while intoxicated, and numerous traffic violations.
More and more teens are getting charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in New Jersey. The elements of a DWI or DUI offense in New Jersey are found in N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.
A DWI begins with a traffic stop. The prosecution needs to show the defendant was operating a vehicle and that the defendant was intoxicated at the time. After a traffic stop, the police give a number of tests to determine intoxication. Tests may include a breathalyzer, field sobriety, and blood tests. The police later write a police report which gets included in the complaint as discovery on the test results which the district attorney uses to prove intoxication.
A DWI charge can result in community service, jail time, and serious fines depending on the number of prior offenses and whether property or people were harmed during the incident. Without an experienced New Jersey criminal defense attorney, a defendant charged with a DWI may not have someone review all the circumstances of the case to ensure the police had a valid reason to pull over the defendant, the police appropriately administered the field sobriety tests, or the tests properly determined the Blood Alcohol Content.
After being arrested and booked for DWI, a case goes to arraignment. Like most criminal court proceedings, the arraignment is open to the public, and other cases will be heard at the same time. If the defendant does not have an attorney and is indigent, a public defender may be appointed. At the arraignment, the defendant is read the charges or given the complaint. The judge calls each case by line number and asks the defendant how the defendant wants to plead: guilty, not guilty, no contest. A no contest plead may have the same consequences as a guilty plead except that a guilty plead may be used against someone in a civil proceeding as an admission.
A defendant should engage an experienced criminal defense attorney to assist in each court proceeding to ensure the defendant properly pleads and there is an advocate to negotiate penalties and sentencing with the district attorney. Besides the monetary and jail time consequences, having a DWI can hurt someone’s job and professional prospects when employers conduct criminal background investigations.
