Last week a New Jersey driver actually won his DWI-DUI appeal in the NJ Appellate Division. This defendant was charged with DWI-DUI in NJ along with a slew of other related NJ traffic violations after a single vehicle NJ car accident. This defendant was convicted of the DWI-DWI charge in both the NJ Municipal Court and the NJ Law Division.
The NJ Appellate Division agreed with the defendant’s argument that the NJ police officer failed to properly charge him with the NJ DWI-
DUI refusal charge. The charge on the traffic ticket stated: “refusal to submit blood,” instead of “failure to submit to a Breathalyzer test.”
The NJ Appellate Division ruled that this was a violation of due process. What was this NJ police officer thinking? It is very unusual for NJ Police officers to take blood after an NJ DWI-DUI.
Do you think that that court made a good decision? Do you really think that the NJ DWI-DUI suspect did not understand that he was being charged with a DWI-
DUI refusal?
