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[The full text of the unpublished court ruling is available in a 49k PDF file at the source link.]
The 4 plus grand goin to the state explains it all for me...
No the moral of the story drulnk driver defender and therefore fan of criminals is DONT GET INTO A CAR DRUNK!
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.
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.
Hey, hope y’all had a good time last night!
Another defender of drunk drivers another person who thinks killing is ok. Is killing while drunk driving your favorite crime?
Another murder lover posts. Anyone who defends drunk drivers thinks killing is okay because that’s what drunk drivers do.
Please, cut out the dramatics! The impaired levels today are simply ridiculous. No one is advocating driving while really intoxicated.
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.
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.
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!”
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.
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.
Show us your papers, please.
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.
BTW, newby, I've seen bodies strewn on the highway, infants, children and adults. Nothing funny about it at all despite your psychotic rantings.
Describe 'drunk' for everyone.
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