McQuade, 23, has been released pending a court arraignment.

Are you looking for a NJ DWI lawyer?

A landmark case involving New Jersey DWI criminal lawyer Evan Levow has lead to a court ordered audit of the source code for the Alcotest 7110 MKIII-C manufactured by Draeger. In two separate studies, one commissioned by Draeger and another by the defendant, both found that the code does not meet industry standards for software design and that it contains ‘bugs’. The test requested by the manufacturer found no malware but noted excessively complex and poor maintained code. It also located at least one reproducible bug. The test requested by the defendant found 24 major defects, including one that disables safeguard features intended to detect and prevent invalid or corrupt instructions. Concern was raised by the researchers over the discovery that the decimal precision is not consistent throughout the code. The code was found to return arbitrary default values when the test failed and to ignore errors. That increases the potential for inaccurate results and a false arrest for drunk driving.

It is the potential legal, social and financial impact of a conviction for DWI based on the results of a breathalyzer that demand independent verification of the machine’s accuracy and its ability to successfully complete its intended critical task.

The risks are huge for Draeger too as an agreement between the company and the state of New Jersey stipulates the return of nearly $7 million if the state Supreme Court deems the breathalyzers unreliable.

Have you been charged with DWI in NJ?

Weehawken police were alerted to a gray Ferrari 430 that had hit several cars around 6:30 pm. Police managed to pull over the vehicle but as they approached, Sainato sped away, striking a Subaru station wagon in his attempted escape. The Ferrari then struck two more vehicles a few hundred yards away. One of those vehicles, a Chevrolet Impala carrying six people, flipped over and came to a rest on its roof. Finally the Ferrari, which had a value of $262,000 when new, hit a Nissan Maxima, damaging yet another vehicle with flying debris.

Sainato was treated for head trauma at a local medical center. Four of the six people in the Impala were treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The results of tests for blood alcohol content are still pending. Sainato faces several charges, including driving while intoxicated in New Jersey.

Sainato was arrested for making terroristic threats last September 30. On November 23 he was charged again with making terroristic threats and for aggravated assault. He is currently out on $250,000 bail for those charges. Last February, Sainato sideswiped another vehicle and hit a tree, for which he was charged with drunk driving in New Jersey and resisting arrest. In the early 90’s, he spent four year in prison for various crimes, including conspiracy to commit arson. Sainato received four years probation in July 2003 for assault by auto.

Are you trying to find a NJ DWI attorney?

McKenzie is a native of Trenton, New Jersey. He played for Penn State and an eight year veteran with the NFL. McKenzie has played all but three games for the Giants since joining the team for the 2005 season. The Giants organization has indicated McKenzie will play during this week’s game against the Baltimore Ravens, clarifying that only the league, not the individual team, has the right to impose penalties for alcohol or drug offenses. The NFL says that first time offenders for something like DWI must typically enter a substance abuse program and could be subject to suspension or a fine. Head coach Tom Coughlin has been supportive of his offensive lineman, indicating that McKenzie has shown remorse for his mistake.

Have you been charged with DWI in NJ?

At the heart of the situation is a New Jersey DWI case against Paul Amelio. During an argument with his daughter, Amelio left his house, got in his car and drove off. His daughter called the police and told them her father was drunk. The officer followed Amelio until he returned to his driveway, and then charged him with driving while intoxicated in NJ. Amelio pleaded guilty but then appealed.

Amelio’s defense attorney, Douglas Kinz, said that the police did not have enough information to warrant a traffic stop and initiate an arrest. Historically the courts have ruled that such tips must involve specifics, and in the case of a suspected drunk driver, an estimate of the amount of alcohol someone has consumed. Amelio’s daughter simply said her father was ‘drunk’ and provided no further information. Nor did she witness any erratic driving. Kinz stated that the police who responded to the scene, “lacked a reasonable and articulable suspicion that (Amelio) had violated the law.” It was entirely possible Amelio’s 17-year old daughter may not have known the difference between acting belligerent and being intoxicated, and Kinz raised the question as to whether she was in the same room as her father at the time of the argument.

In the absence of specific information, tips can be viewed as vendettas, using the police as instruments of revenge. Evan Levow, a leading lawyer in New Jersey DWI defense, said the questions being asked by the Supreme Court about procedure in a traffic stop based on a tip “are important…(as they address) when it is permissible to intrude upon the freedoms of all drivers.” Kinz warned that, if the court upholds the traffic stop of Amelio, anyone driving a car will be subject to being stopped on a hunch and a guess.

Both a Superior Court and a panel of judges on the state Appellate Division ruled that Amelio’s New Jersey DWI conviction should not stand. Prosecutors however appealed to the high court.

Are you searching for an experienced NJ DWI attorney?

See why New Jersey DWI Attorney Evan Levow along with other defense attorneys filed a 529-page petition with the high court.

The ruling focuses on use of the Alcotest 7110, which is used in 17 of the state’s 21 counties to determine blood alcohol content in NJ drunk driving cases. The 7110 replaces the Breathalyzer, which was first developed in 1954.

Challenges to the new equipment were lead by New Jersey DWI defense attorney Evan Levow. At issue was the accuracy of the computerized tester. Levow says the Alcotest 7110 has problems that can violate a driver’s constitutional rights. High breath temperatures could result in false high blood alcohol content readings and the filing of inaccurate charges of driving while intoxicated in New Jersey.

The high court ruling comes after public hearings and two reports that found the Alcotest “much more reliable” than the previous testing equipment. The state said it needs the new device because maintenance parts are not available for the outdated Breathalyzer. The Alcotest was first used in New Jersey seven years ago and the state attorney general began seeking certification of the equipment in 2003. The legal challenge resolved by the recent ruling was started in January 2006.

During the two year review and debate over the accuracy of the Alcotest, 10,708 New Jersey DWI convictions have been on hold. The Supreme Court found breath test evidence gathered from use of the equipment is admissible in court. It says though that police and prosecutors must follow several safeguards. DWI lawyer Levow pointed out that the issue is especially critical because drunk driving cases in New Jersey are heard by judges, not juries, and there is a heavy reliance on breath test results.

New Jersey DWI attorney Evan Levow plans to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

State v. Jane H. Chun, et al. (A-96-06) (PDF Version)

This syllabus is not part of the opinion of the Court. It has been prepared by the Office of the Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor approved by the Supreme Court. Please note that, in the interests of brevity, portions of any opinion may not have been summarized.

If you have been arrested for a DWI in New Jersey, you will need to hire a New Jersey DWI Lawyer.

Korpita, 48, just recently resigned from his post as judge for the municipal courts in Dover, Rockaway Borough and Victory Gardens because of a New Jersey drunk driving arrest in Roxbury last November. In that incident Korpita was found slumped over the steering wheel of his car after drinking at a local go-go-bar. His blood alcohol content registered nearly three times the legal limit for driving while intoxicated in New Jersey. He reportedly told the arresting officer “I'm a judge, bro” and presented his judicial identification card. He pleaded guilty last December to NJ DWI and threatening the arresting police officers.

There is no indication that Korpita tried to use his former position to influence the police officers in the Sparta incident. He has been charged with driving while intoxicated in New Jersey, failure to keep right, careless driving and refusal to take a breath sample.

Are you looking for a NJ DWI Lawyer?

In May 1993, Roe was driving on the wrong side of the road in Rockaway Township when he ran into a minivan driven by Julia Worosila. The head-on crash left Julia and her 15 year-old daughter with serious injuries. Julia’s husband John suffered minor injuries.

Roe registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.17%, well above the legal limit for driving while intoxicated in New Jersey. While convicted of a New Jersey DWI, as part of a plea agreement he entered drug and alcohol counseling and avoided the serious crime of assault by auto. His license was suspended for six months and he paid court fines.

MADD has appealed to New Jersey Governor Corzine, asking him to block the legislation. Corzine’s office has said that the governor did not know about the NJ DWI accident when he signed the bill last month. In order to null the measure, another bill would have to be introduced to the state legislature. The original author of the bill has not replied to inquiries.

Congressman Roe declined comment through his attorney. John Worosila said Roe, “caused a nightmare for us”. He went on to say that lawmakers should be more concerned about maintaining the state roadways and think twice before assigning name rights.

Are you looking for a New Jersey DWI Attorney?

Law enforcement officers across the state enter the information into a database that helps them identify places that may be serving alcohol to those who are intoxicated. Because it is against the law to serve or sell alcohol to someone who is drunk, the state’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control could levy a fine and suspend or even revoke an establishment’s liquor license.

While supporting efforts to reduce drunk driving, the New Jersey Restaurant Association points out that there is little way of verifying the statements of DUI offenders. There are those who could simply lie, and unfairly hurt a restaurant or bar.

The bar identification question will be a part of the statewide police crackdown on drunk driving over the Labor Day holiday.

Since 1924, New Jersey courts have followed this rule: anyone can spot a drunk, but it takes special training to recognize when someone is stoned.

Yesterday the state Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed that rule, but offered this twist: Your typical police officer knows marijuana intoxication when he sees it.

"Expert testimony only requires that a witness be qualified 'by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education,'" Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto wrote. He said the curriculum for police training covers illegal drugs, their street names and their "symptoms of use."

Prosecutors routinely point to that training to show that a police officer is qualified "to testify as expert witnesses on the subject of marijuana intoxication," the justice wrote.

But Rivera-Soto also said nothing in the law on driving while intoxicated requires such expert testimony. The high court reinstated a Camden County man's conviction for driving under the influence of marijuana, which an appeals court had thrown out because the state did not present an expert witness.

Two state troopers who stopped Justin Bealor's car in Sea Isle City did testify that they observed him driving erratically and that his speech was slurred and his eyes "bloodshot and glassy," the ruling said. A drug test found metabolites of marijuana in Bealor's urine. Taken together, the high court ruled, that was enough evidence to convict Bealor of driving while drugged.

Bealor's lawyer, Brian S. O'Malley of Haddon Heights, said he had expected to win. He said Bealor, now 25, was a college student at the time of his arrest in July 2002.

"The family will be disappointed," O'Malley said. "It's been a roller-coaster ride: conviction, reversal, conviction."

Deputy Attorney General Steven Yomtov, who argued the case for the state, was "pleased with the outcome."

Yomtov said the appeals court ruling had created a problem for prosecutors because it required them to prove through expert testimony that a driver had not merely smoked marijuana, but was driving under its influence. He said drug testing, unlike alcohol testing, cannot tell if someone has enough marijuana in his bloodstream to impair his driving.

On appeal to the Supreme Court, Yomtov argued the symptoms of marijuana intoxication are so well known that ordinary citizens would recognize them. In essence, he argued everyone is an expert at spotting someone who is stoned. The justices rejected that argument but agreed the appeals court had made the case unduly complicated.

"The issue is simple: Was the defendant 'under the influence' of a narcotic, hallucinogen or habit-producing drug while he operated a motor vehicle," Rivera-Soto wrote. He concluded the state proved Bealor drove under the influence of marijuana.

But he added that for future cases, the "preferred method" is for the prosecutor to establish the arresting officer's credentials as an expert in recognizing marijuana intoxication.

"We ended up getting, I think, the same result," Yomtov said.

Source: http://www.nj.com