Posted on 03/16/2007 9:25:40 AM PDT by CedarDave
One of the state's top law enforcement officials and an anti-drunken driving advocate say they've never heard a DWI tale quite so alarming as that of Joseph Brill.
Brill, 53, was arrested Wednesday evening in northeast Albuquerque on suspicion of his 28th DWI. He fell over when he got out of his vehicle and failed a field sobriety test ...
A Metropolitan Court complaint said files indicate he has had 27 prior DWI offenses with at least 14 prior convictions. MVD records show that he has had his license revoked five times and that it was revoked at the time of his most recent arrest.
Brill has spent nearly four years in New Mexico jails and prisons on DWI charges— and was still on parole for two of them at the time of his arrest Wednesday ...
"This man is the epitome of a public nuisance," Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said in an interview.
Linda Atkinson, executive director of the Albuquerque-based DWI Resource Center, said she has never seen someone with 28 drunken driving arrests. "Twenty-eight does appear to be the highest," she said. "It's pretty disgusting to see someone who can continue to defy the odds with a history like that."
A sheriff's deputy saw Brill park his car in a driveway in the 6400 block of Tokay NE around 8 p.m., the complaint states.
Deputies noticed signs of impairment and a can of Bud Light beer that was "cold to the touch" in the vehicle, according to the complaint.
Deputies administered field sobriety tests, which Brill failed, ... He then refused to take a breath- or blood-alcohol test.
"His refusing to give us a test is a telltale sign that he's an old pro. He's very familiar with the system— a career drunk driver," White said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Gosh, I hope they don't confiscate his car. That would be wrong.
What alternative to driving did this poor soul have. It's obvious he was too drunk to walk ;-)
That's pretty damned disgusting, if you ask me. The judges and courts are disgusting too ... obviously, nobody has a monopoly on criminal negligence in this case.
By the time the outrage over egregious failures of the system as in this case turns into law, it will have nothing to do with chronic and dangerous drunks and will instead crack down more harshly on unimpaired social drinkers who blew a 0.08 at the checkpoint.
The Judge'll finally get serious after the drunk kills a relative of the Judge....
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