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Posted on 09/02/2007 3:22:06 AM PDT by Daffynition
New Jersey appellate court decision upholds a DUI for a man sleeping in a parked truck under the influence.
New Jersey Superior Court logoA New Jersey appellate court yesterday upheld the principle that convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) can be imposed on individuals who were not driving. David Montalvo, 36, found this out as he responsibly tried to sleep off his intoxication in his GMC pickup truck while safely stopped in the parking lot of the Market Place Deli on a cold February morning last year. At around 5am he awoke to see a Hamburg Police Department patrolman standing over him. The officer had opened the door of Montalvo's truck to rouse the man and insist that he take a breathalyzer test. Montalvo refused.
He was arrested and forced to make a conditional guilty plea to the charge of DUI, intending to challenge the police officer's actions as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Montalvo's attorney argued that the patrolman could have no reasonable grounds to suspect that a sleeping man was involved in criminal activity. Montalvo's truck was running, in park, because according to weather records it was about 25 degrees Fahrenheit that Saturday morning.
"From the perspective of the officer on the scene, I don't find at all that what he was doing was unreasonable," Superior Court Judge Thomas Critchley Jr. said in his rejection of Montalvo's argument. "In fact, I find it would have been unreasonable to have stopped his inquiries at any point short of what he did."
The appellate court agreed that the officer was acting reasonably to render assistance to someone who may have been in distress.
"The officer wanted to make sure the driver was 'okay,' nothing was wrong with the businesses and that the truck was operating properly," the appellate decision concluded. "We are convinced that under the facts as observed by Officer Aaronson defendant was lawfully subject to limited inquiry based upon an objectively reasonable exercise of the officer's community caretaking function."
The appellate division affirmed Montalvo's DUI conviction, meaning the sleeping motorist faces a civil remedial fee or "driver responsibility" tax of $3000 in addition to various other fines and fees of at least $1000, plus his legal bills.
[The full text of the unpublished court ruling is available in a 49k PDF file at the source link.]
Fair enough.
Of course, we know what happens when we ban anything.
Man still is a creature with some intelligence and cognitive ability. We instinctively know right from wrong. Trust your fellow man to make correct decisions and most of the time he will. Hamstring his free will and abilities to think for himself and he will revert to a base animal and be incapable of functioning without government supervision.
We are better than that.
Here’s my question: Are we seeing more of a jack-booted policing of America? Are we seeing a less service-oriented, more of an authoritarian policing of our towns and cities?
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I think so.
For what it's worth, I don't blame the average police officer, in the greater degree. It's a combination of factors, I think. Rulings by the courts, actions brought by lawyers, a certain segment of the civilian population. Courts that became more activist and interested in social engineering. Lawyers who have seized upon methods to extract monies and to "make law" for personal advancements. Civilians who ask more of government to lessen their own needs to work harder to co-exist in a civil society. Being a citizen, a free citizen, is hard work.
The squeaky wheels have gotten the grease as political chiefs have had to knuckle under to those loud special interest groups. Cops have to act, and be, tougher on crime, criminals and perceived criminals to protect themselves due to the level of violence and resistance of some criminal elements. The average citizen who screws up, even mildly, is treated tougher. They see the cops as too strict and resist being pushed around. Each side eyes the other more warily. Common ground erodes. Adults who grew up learning about Officer Friendly now see him as Officer Nasty. Their kids are taught that the cops are not always their friends. It goes on and on.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm myopic. Maybe I'm too old fashioned. Maybe we need to really get back to "Mayberry" and realize we're all in this together. Maybe the common ground and common sense can be rediscovered.
Who knows.
Q: Here’s my question: Are we seeing more of a jack-booted policing of America? Are we seeing a less service-oriented, more of an authoritarian policing of our towns and cities?
A: Yes
I'm not pimpin for or defending the jackass with a BAC of .39 (or an alcohol to blood content of 0.00)
1.4 million people were arrested last year for DUI. I guarantee you that 10 times that amount are on the road at this very second. relictele is right.
Back Door to Prohibition: The New War on Social Drinking: A great piece by Radley Balko who is the editor of Cato.org and a columnist for FoxNews.com. Read his blog "The Agitator", it's great.
Let's have a toast! Now that the smelly smokers are gone from the bar, we can have a few pints without that annoying, stinky smell of tobacco smoke. We're fine. The Government never has and never will go after alcohol....NOT!
Behind the Neo-Prohibition Campaign The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The Center For Consumer Freedom will help to explain why non-smokers who like Sam Adams or Jimmy Beam have nothing to worry about. It's not as if RWJF, a key group behind the anti-tobacco crusade, has them in their sights. You can rest easy.
Colleges are reaching their limit on alcohol : You're in the stands watching the USC-UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. How about an ice cold beer? Bwa,ha,ha,ha,ha!!!! Not for you my friend. Don't be surprised when you go to the Ballpark to watch your favorite team in the future and find no beer for sale. Can't say I didn't warn you.
Single Glass of Wine Immerses D.C. Driver in Legal Battle: We all agree that the drunk driver with a .45 BAC who kills a family of 5 by plowing into them while going the wrong way down a highway should be put away for life. However, under the category of "this could be you", read this before you take a sip of wine at your cousin's wedding, especially if it happens to be in the capital of our great nation.
Arresting Drinkers...In Bars: Let me repeat this for maximum effect: Arresting Drinkers...In Bars.
Anheuser-Busch Urged to Abandon "Idiotarod" Beer Promotion :Anheuser-Busch should drop its sponsorship of a Washington, D.C. charity event called the "Idiotarod," organized by a local group that goes by the acronym "SMASHED," according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The March 3 event, in which young people are urged to acquire shopping carts and drink beer in one bar after another, is in clear violation of the Beer Institute's Advertising and Marketing Code, which prohibits marketing which encourages rapid or excessive beer drinking or drinking games, according to the group.
Bud Light presents: "REAL MEN OF GENIUS"
(Real men of genius)
Today we salute you, Mr. Idiotarod Shopping Cart Racer!
(Mr. Idiotarod Shopping cart racer)
Sure, others use their shopping carts to carry their milk, eggs and groceries to the checkout counter...
(debit or credit?)
But you have found an even more ingenious use...
Racing other drunken idiots down the streets of Washington DC while dodging taxis, bike messengers and another fellow drunk, Ted Kennedy in his BMW...
(watch out for Teddy)
Wearing a dog harness, and a g-string and bow tie, you rampage down the sidewalks pulling a shopping cart with an alcohol to blood content of .89
(oooh, I feel a little woozy)
Homeless people, bag ladies, pedestrians, small children and animals are no match for your oncoming assault.
(get the hell out of my way)
So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, oh Dale Earnhardt Jr of the shopping carts, because when our car breaks down, we won't call AAA or AA, we'll call you...
(Mr. Idiotarod Shopping cart racer)
Bud Light beer. Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.
I have followed these kinds of stories for a long time and want to know where motor homes, recreational vehicles, campers and similar fall into this continuum. Not to excuse drinking and driving bit drinking and sleeping is not considered unlawful, mostly.
It doesn’t matter if the engine is running or not, but it helps to make a citation. Sleeping in the back seat probably won’t matter either.
Exactly, I’m drinking, driving, sleeping AND posting this all at the same time. I’m fine. :-)
This has nothing to do with “socialists” - you can thank social conservatives and “law and order” conservatives for this.
You are so far over the top, NEWBIE, that someone needs to hand you your head. Stop being an obnoxious idiot.
I have been the recipient of 2 DUIs back in my misspent youth, and I deserved both of them many times over. I figure I got away with drunk driving at least a thousand times for each time I was caught.
One of the times I got away with it I was so tired I stopped my car in the middle of the road and passed out with the car still in gear and my foot on the brake. I woke up as the sun was coming up, let off the brake and continued driving home.
Reminds me of the part from Don’t Be a Menace to South Central , the parody of those 90s’ ‘hood movies.’
“Is there gonna be any drinkin’ at this party?”
-”Yeah, Pop, I guess, a little somethin’ somethin’”
“Have I ever talked to you about drinkin’ and drivin’?”
-(anticipating a lecture) “No, Pop.”
“That __t is fun, boy! What you wanna do, right, is go on the highway right, turn off your headlights, punch it to 80 and let go of the steering wheel! That -— will bug you out!”
We used to get a girl friend to drive slowly while we sat on the trunk, leaning against the back window drinking gallon jugs of wine, philosophizing, and occasionally shooting stuff with our rifles.
Indeed. It would have been much better for everyone had it just frozen to death instead.
Yup. There is a solution to this, but it is not acceptable to elaborate upon it here.
Well said. Pretty much describes to a T, just about every officious bastard I've ever met that works for the government.
You are on the wrong forum.
I am (temporarily) speechless.
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