Driver racks up 2 DWI charges in single night...

News Observer ^ | Saturday, August 30, 2003 | Oren Dorrel

[ConservativeMan55]

By OREN DORELL, Staff Writer

A Raleigh man was arrested twice Friday morning on charges of drunken driving -- once after an accident and again three hours later after returning to his car and driving it away from where it was parked. "It was absolutely terrible," Sougata Mukherjee , editor of the Triangle Business Journal, said Friday afternoon, summing up a night that began at Sullivan's Steakhouse on Glenwood Avenue. "This is the first time something like this has happened to me." Mukherjee's first arrest occurred after his 2001 Nissan Pathfinder rear-ended a 2001 Saab driven by Winston Cavin, a News & Observer night metro editor who was on his way home from work. There were no injuries.

The accident occurred near the intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Lead Mine Road at 12:34 a.m., Raleigh Police Officer C.M. Warner wrote on Mukherjee's arrest warrant.

According to court documents, Mukherjee, 39, of 8910-210 Half Moon Court in Raleigh, smelled of alcohol and registered 0.16 on a breath test -- twice the legal limit. He was transported to the Wake County jail, where his license was seized and revoked because of the DWI charge, and he was released on a written promise to appear.

It is not clear where he went from there, but about 3:45 a.m., Mukherjee was behind the wheel of his Nissan again when he was stopped by the same officer at Creedmoor and Lynn roads in North Raleigh, according to a second arrest report.

That time, he registered 0.11 on the breath test. He was arrested and booked on a second DWI charge and on a charge of driving while his license was revoked, according to court records. His car was seized.

Mukherjee's driving record is otherwise clean in North Carolina, according to Division of Motor Vehicles records. A single DWI conviction usually carries a minimum sentence of 24 hours in jail or a treatment program and a one-year license revocation.

Asked why he returned to his car, Mukherjee replied, "I was in total shock. I don't know."

After the second arrest, he was placed in the pretrial release program, a court-administered program that enforces court dates and good behavior with the threat of jail time. He was released into the custody of a sober adult sometime after 7 a.m.

Mukherjee said he told his boss about the incident but has not learned whether there will be any consequences.

Staff writer Oren Dorell can be reached at 829-8963 or odorell@newsobserver.com.

[rangerwife]

I agree with you there!

[South40]

August 30, Hyannisport, MA: Senator Ted Kennedy Admitted to a Boston Area Hospital Following an "Unidentified Health Incident."

[ConservativeMan55]

They should take away Ted Kennedy's driving license...and put him in jail!

[Porterville]

Here's one; the town I lived in has a Mardi Gras once a year and promotes it all over the state and town with parades and flashing girls and all the good stuff. I had 6-8 beers over 6 hours of time. I told my friend to drive my car home and that I would walk, b/c there were just too many girls. I walked home, was 1 block from my apartment. A little short red headed cop stopped me, arrested me, and wouldn't give me a breathelizer... he took me to the sheriff department where I continued to ask for a breathelizer, they said they didn't have to because they were just holding me. The put me in a drunk tank with violent thugs till morning, made me walk home. It got dismissed, but there was absolutely no justice in the event, it just left me bitter.

[ConservativeMan55]

Bump!

[ConservativeMan55]

Wow! Thats strange that they would do that! Probably trying to scare you.

[Porterville]

That is just the state of affairs in America today... try walking down your street with a bottle of beer... The cops would stop you and treat you as if you were some kind of evil spector from hell... now do that in any other country in the world... I love cops, I know it's a tuff job, but they are encouraged to destroy everyone blindly. That incedent can have a real impact on my life becuase I want to work in the public sector, but I won't let it stop me, I just have to do a little more than the average guy.

[ConservativeMan55]

Yeah I know. We should arm the citizens more and arm the cops less!!

[rangerwife]

I can understand why you would be bitter after that experience. I would be too!

[ConservativeMan55]

I can't believe they wouldn't let him write a "promise" letter.

[RichInOC]

I want to know how this guy didn't get held for the rest of the night after the first stop. Do they not have drunk tanks in North Carolina?

[Criminal Number 18F]

They should take away Ted Kennedy's driving license...and put him in jail!

They have, twice that I know of -- once after Chappaquiddick. I remember seeing him get into the back seat of someone's VW Bug after church. My parents were Catholic and we used to attend the same church, summers although they usually went to later services for obvious reasons... Ted was lean then, but he is still a big guy, he's a bad fit in a VW back seat.

The women of the family were worse drunks than the men. Ted's wife Joan was a terrible alcoholic. Eunice Shriver was worse.

I have a degree of sympathy. I have alcoholics in my family, too. It tends to run in families (genetic predisposition?) I don't know, but I'm very leery of booze.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[ConservativeMan55]

I guess not. This seems strange as North Carolina is a pretty respectable place from what I've heard.

[Heatseeker]

Hey, the guy is obviously getting better, he only blew a 0.11 the second time. </sarcasm>

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL!!

[ConservativeMan55]

What are the implications of getting arrested...on someone's position of holding elective office?

[Dan from Michigan]

I thought DUI'ers spent the night in jail.....

[ConservativeMan55]

Union Thugs should be thrown in jail for taking public money and using it for political purposes.

[Dan from Michigan]

Don't get me started on them. I nearly got in a fight with them last time I had a run in with them. If the cops wern't around, I would have.

[ConservativeMan55]

Damned Unions. Could you help me find some stuff on different Unions. All their illegal activites?