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New Jersey Upholds DUI for a Man in Parked Vehicle
The Newspaper.com ^ | 8/28/2007 | staff reporter

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.]


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: donutwatch; dui; neoprohibition; publicintoxication; revenuetickets
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To: Larry Lucido

The 4 plus grand goin to the state explains it all for me...


81 posted on 09/02/2007 7:00:35 AM PDT by sit-rep ( http://trulineint.com/latestposts.asp)
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To: driftdiver

No the moral of the story drulnk driver defender and therefore fan of criminals is DONT GET INTO A CAR DRUNK!


82 posted on 09/02/2007 7:00:43 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: Luke Skyfreeper
Don't forget, his insurance company will benefit as well.

I note that in this case the government has forcibly seized at least $4,000 from this man, not including his legal fees which will probably amount to at least another $1,000 or more.
83 posted on 09/02/2007 7:00:53 AM PDT by CORedneck
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To: AmericaUnited

So you go out drinking and gleefully get into a car intent on driving home if you kill someone who cares? I PRAY YOU HAVE NO CHILDREN because you think drunk driving is dandy.

No decent human being would ever get into a car to drive drunk.


84 posted on 09/02/2007 7:02:29 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: Daffynition; elkfersupper; Squantos; sit-rep

BTW, in Texas (where open container was still allowed up until about 1988), the criteria for “operating” was whether the car was in park or in gear (I don’t remember where “neutral” fell). At least that made some sense with respect to highway safety.


85 posted on 09/02/2007 7:02:42 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: sit-rep

Hey, hope y’all had a good time last night!


86 posted on 09/02/2007 7:03:50 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: imahawk

Another defender of drunk drivers another person who thinks killing is ok. Is killing while drunk driving your favorite crime?


87 posted on 09/02/2007 7:04:07 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: Thumper1960

Another murder lover posts. Anyone who defends drunk drivers thinks killing is okay because that’s what drunk drivers do.


88 posted on 09/02/2007 7:05:41 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: cubswinby100

Please, cut out the dramatics! The impaired levels today are simply ridiculous. No one is advocating driving while really intoxicated.


89 posted on 09/02/2007 7:05:55 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
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To: TYVets
or loaded him into the police car and taken him home.

Done that many times. Or called someone to get him. IF they were on the side of the road. If they were driving and weaving, well, that was a different matter.

90 posted on 09/02/2007 7:06:44 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: Daffynition

ANother person who loves drunk drivers and killers. If he wasn’t a completely worthless POS he wouldn’t even have been in the car.


91 posted on 09/02/2007 7:07:29 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: Larry Lucido

No drunk driving murder lover the responsible thing and what every person who has a shred of decency does IS NOT DRIVE.

Please tell me you live nowhere near me in Illinois since you love those drunk drivers. If my family was killed you’d say “WOO HOO! A DRUNK DRIVER KILLS AGAIN! YEA DRUNK DRIVER!”


92 posted on 09/02/2007 7:09:24 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: Manic_Episode
There are cases where a drunk passenger is in the passenger seat, the designated driver stops at a 7-11, runs in, the car is running, a cop pulls up, cites the drunk passenger not for P.I. but for DUI. Sucks !

Under these rules, I know I could have been busted for DUI about 20 years ago. A girl (exchange student from RSA) and I were camping overnight at the Butler University at Clowes Hall for Pink Floyd tickets since at the time, Clowes was a Ticket Master outlet at the time. I parked my car in the lot and occasionally we would walk over to the TKE house since I belong to TKE at a different university. I did some good drinking and I would put the keys in to operate the stereo. At the time, there were many people there (mostly college & H.S. kids). There was many BUPD officers driving around as well.

Scary ! At the time, I already had 8 points on my license for a speeding ticket earlier in the year plus a ticket from 2 years earlier that would be dropping off in a month.
93 posted on 09/02/2007 7:09:42 AM PDT by CORedneck
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To: sit-rep

Yes who cares if the guy was a drunk who went out for the purpose of killing people as everyone who drives drunk does and pulled over and fell asleep. If he wasn’t a total POS he wouldn’t have been in the car atall.


94 posted on 09/02/2007 7:11:02 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: cubswinby100; Squantos

Relax. I was an Illinois cop for 5 years and a Texas cop for 9 years and arrested plenty of drunks (in and out of cars) who were a danger to themselves or others. I was smart enough to recognize the difference.


95 posted on 09/02/2007 7:11:38 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: DCPatriot

Show us your papers, please.


96 posted on 09/02/2007 7:11:46 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0 (Reunite Gondwanaland!)
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To: AmericaUnited

Yes you are. Sorry they aren’t ridiculous.

I have never been arrested for drunk driving. Why? Because I am not a POS and I don’t drive drunk.

The same reason I have never been arrested for drunk driving is the same reason I have never been arrested for murder, theft, rape, terrorism or being an illegal alien. Why because not being a POS I have never done any of those things.


97 posted on 09/02/2007 7:13:00 AM PDT by cubswinby100 (Chicago home of the 2007 World Series and 2008 Super Bowl Champions)
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To: Daffynition
In Ohio you can be passed out in the back seat with the key in your pocket and still be busted for DUI because they
read that as intent to drive under the law.I’m against drunk driving but along with asset forfeiture and child support, good intentions have turn the law into revenue enhancement to enrich the government and the price also includes losing our personal freedoms under the law.
98 posted on 09/02/2007 7:13:14 AM PDT by bonehead4freedom (The real way to stop crime is to hug a thug! More midnight basketball!)
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To: cubswinby100
If my family was killed you’d say “WOO HOO! A DRUNK DRIVER KILLS AGAIN! YEA DRUNK DRIVER!”

BTW, newby, I've seen bodies strewn on the highway, infants, children and adults. Nothing funny about it at all despite your psychotic rantings.

99 posted on 09/02/2007 7:14:24 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: cubswinby100
and I don’t drive drunk.

Describe 'drunk' for everyone.

100 posted on 09/02/2007 7:15:45 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
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