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[The full text of the unpublished court ruling is available in a 49k PDF file at the source link.]
I guess that life does imitate art and vice versa. I remembered something like this from an old episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.
“The Shower” Episode #0221
Directed by Jerry Zaks
Written by Leslie Cavney
Debra gives a bridal shower for Amy, but her good intentions get sidetracked by Marie’s overzealous participation. When Marie attempts to “take over” Amy’s wedding shower, Debra gets upset and yells at her, prompting Marie to leave in a huff. Returning to the party festivities, Debra starts drinking a little too much champagne and winds up being too tipsy to drive. When she can’t reach Ray on the phone, Debra decides to take a nap in her car with the keys in the ignition and is awakened by a police officer, who arrests her for drunk driving. When her license is suspended, Debra finds herself in a precarious situation when she’s forced to rely on Marie for help.
Later we get the call from the automaton Barney Fife wanting to know why we left the scene of an accident and are driving without a insurance card which is ...bla, bla, bla. I tell him all parites were satisfied, and the insurance agent is taking care of the info. He says, quote, “So, what you are telling me is that you want me to issue a warrant for arrest for (cousins name)?” Real wise-guy, whom I had never talked to before. What a petty, officious little prick. But what do you expect now a days? Who would be the nanny state’s step and fetch it for every little socialist scheme? Who would work for a system that from top to bottom, hustles to shake down working and middle class and let expense centers of real criminals go? Who would do that for a living? The system is the enemy of the citizens and cops are their butlers.
I have often wondered who the crazy one is, one who can not make a rational decision under the influence of a mind altering drug, or those that expect them to.
One should not use mind altering drugs, because once you do rationality goes out the window.
New Jersey Upholds DUI for a Man in Parked Vehicle
there was an episode on everyone loves raymond jsut like this.....
I guess nj is telling people just drive drunk!!!
we in the socialist peoples’ republic of nj are so proud!!!
Oh I am so touched by their concern.And the money they get from a dui didnt have any part in this.
It amazes me how the legal system twists and turns the end result of incidents/situations to their benefit (government is always right... tax paying/responsible public be damned).
Have not talked with you for years, FP. Trust all is well.
Dan
Here you can sleep in front seat and throw keys on back floor and beat a rap like that...as has been mentioned, his mistake was that the car was runnin’
We are fast becoming subjects and not citizens. Had the man died from exposure to freezing temperatures, the headlines would've asked why had the man not used his truck heater to keep warm.
Answer: Fear of an oppressive government.
It is little wonder that 'from my cold, dead hands' is a popular slogan of independent minded, freedom loving citizens.
Seat belt laws are the same.
If the engine is running and you don't have your seat belt buckled, you are in violation.
So buckle up before you start the car. /s
In my youth, I have driven out to meet friends with no intention of getting intoxicated, ended up intoxicated anyway and sleeping it off in the car rather than driving drunk.
This ruling seems rather unfair.
A friend of mine was convicted of OWI after an officer found him sleeping in his car on a parking lot. He was not behind the wheel, but had the keys. This was in Louisiana.
Thirty miles south, I had another friend who every weekend would frequent the same bar/club out in a camp/resort type of area. The Parish Sheriff Deputy would pull him over, and take him home. It got to the point where the Deputy would come and pick my friend up at the bar every weekend.
I don’t condone the behavior of these two friends. I think both have now seen the error of their ways.
A few years ago I was leaving the house at 5am to go to work. Parked in the middle of the street right in front of my driveway was a car — lights on, motor running, with the driver passed out over the steering wheel.
I was glad the driver had the good sense not to go any farther. It took the police to move him ... dunno how/if he was cited.
What if “that location” was the parking lot of the bar where he had been consuming adult beverages?
Both are reasonable to me. Especially the motor boats.
.
“Our judicial system is slowly morphing into a system of lawless oppression. By lawless, I mean that the laws don’t mean what they mean, they mean what some judge says they mean which is entirely different from what they actually do mean. And all of it is designed to give greater power to the government to throw your *** in jail or seize your property if you don’t do exactly as they say.”
EXACTLY. This is 100% BS. What part of “Driving” in DUI doesn’t this “Judge” understand?
So what. He did the responsible thing. I am sick of the bs of splitting hairs just to bring us under laws that make no sense.
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