Union County NJ Drivers Can Be Charged with DWI for Sleeping in Parked Car while Intoxicated
Drivers in Union County and elsewhere in New Jersey need to be aware that the state has some of the toughest drunk driving laws in the entire country, with prosecutors and judges who are often willing to pursue maximum punishments for repeat offenders. It is also imperative that Union County NJ residents understand that they can be arrested, and charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), even if they are simply seated in a parked motor vehicle while intoxicated.
In Morris County NJ, a police officer recently found out the hard way that a person can be charged with drunk driving simply for sitting in a parked car. A former deputy chief for the Parsippany Police Department was busted in January 2016 when patrol cops found him asleep in his car, which was parked in the parking lot of a local lodge. Although William Makowitz, who currently resides in Sparta NJ, was ultimately found not guilty of the very serious DWI charges, he still faced significant consequences and actually had to stand trial in Madison Joint Municipal Court. Moreover, it appears that Makowitz was only able to avoid a conviction in the DWI case because prosecutors could not conclusively establish that he had driven the car to the Parsippany NJ parking lot.
Of course, the outcome of the case raised some concerns about whether the former New Jersey police officer had been treated leniently by the prosecutor and the judge. If you are not a former law enforcement officer and are caught sleeping off a night of drinking in your car, will you be so lucky?
New Jersey Drunk Driving Laws
NJ lawmakers have not done much to clarify the issue of what happens when an inebriated individual is found sitting in a parked car on a New Jersey roadway or parking lot.
Steve Carrellas, a New Jersey representative for the National Motorists Association, a grassroots alliance of drivers that seeks to protects motorists’ rights in the US, noted that New Jersey’s DWI laws are unclear about whether a car needs to be in motion in order for a person inside the vehicle to be charged with a moving violation like Driving While Intoxicated or Driving Under the Influence. Since there is “no specific language in the DWI statute” that specifically addresses this particular situation, said Carrellas, prosecutors and judges in NJ municipal courts lack guidance on how to resolve these cases.
In the Makowitz DWI case, the prosecutor identified the problems he faced in trying to prove that the former Parsippany cop had either driven the car or intended to drive the car while drunk. It was not enough, argued Makowitz’s traffic defense attorney, that the defendant had already started the engine; the prosecution needed to prove that Makowitz actually had the intention of driving his car while drunk. According to Prosecutor Matthew C. Dorsi, “legal facts of operation” dictate that prosecutors must establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant actually operated the motor vehicle while intoxicated.
However, some NJ prosecutors counter that N.J.S.A. 39:4-50(a), which covers Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) offenses in New Jersey, stipulates that a motorist can be convicted of drunk driving basely solely on the observations of the arresting officer. In other words: the patrol officer does not actually need to establish that the driver was intoxicated in order for the defendant to be convicted of drunk driving.
Beyond that, some NJ residents have been convicted of drunk driving violations in cases with similar fact patterns to the Makowitz DWI case. That’s why anyone who is arrested and charged with drunk driving in the Garden State needs to make sure that they have a qualified, experienced DWI defense attorney on their side.
To learn more, see the following article: Thinking of sleeping off that beer binge in your car? Think again
