Articles Posted in DWI and DUI

A Maryland State Police trooper arresting a driver for DUI on a Friday night in Baltimore County is hardly a newsworthy occurrence.  But when the same trooper arrests the same driver for the same offense just two hours after the first traffic stop it has to make your head turn.  The first arrest happened just after midnight on Route 40 in Rosedale, an area northeast of Baltimore City.  This stretch of highway is a hot area for late night police patrols, and officers are especially keen to impaired driving.  On this particular night a trooper observed a woman driving 67 in a posted 50 mph zone on Route 40 and allegedly passing another car on the shoulder.  A traffic stop ensued and the officer arrested the 33-year old female driver for suspicion of DUI.  The Baltimore woman was also issued a host of other citations including negligent driving, reckless driving, open container and driving off the roadway while passing another vehicle.  As is typical for most DUI cases the woman was processed at the police station and released a couple hours after the initial stop.  What is not typical is that the woman decided to return to her car and drive home that same night.

The state trooper working that evening likely had an idea that the woman he arrested was not finished driving for the night.  According to reports he observed her get back in her vehicle that was parked on a side street off 40.  Police could have had the vehicle towed but they did her a favor and left it parked, which in hindsight was not favor at all.  The trooper followed the woman for a short distance and then initiated another traffic stop at 1:58 a.m., less than 2 hours after and 2 miles away from the first stop.  The same signs of impairment were observed and the woman was again arrested and taken to the police station.  This time she received additional citations for driving within 12 hours after an arrest for DUI or DWI and willfully disobeying a lawful order of a police officer.  Driving within 12 hours of a drunk driving arrest is a jailable offense that carries a maximum penalty of 60 days, and while it’s not that common, it is definitely an offense that a judge will not take lightly.

The woman will be summoned to appear for trial sometime in the next couple months at the district court in Essex. She may chose to resolve her cases in district court or request a jury trial and have the case transferred to Towson. In this type of situation the defendant and her attorney will likely be better served by trying to have the cases consolidated to the same trial date, which the clerk’s office will likely do considering the arresting officer is the same.  Assuming the cases are set for trial on the same day a good defense strategy would be to try to enter into a plea agreement on one of the cases in exchange for the State dismissing the other.  If the State agrees to drop one of the cases it may turn out to be the first case, as it would be reasonable to expect the prosecution to be firm on the charge of driving within 12 hours after a DUI arrest.

Just as the summer beach season began, Worcester County was honored for producing the highest conviction rate among all Maryland counties for DUI and DWI. The announcement came at a recent gathering for state prosecutors at an Ocean City hotel, which also hosts the annual bar convention.  The average conviction rate for drunk driving statewide is about 78 percent, and Worcester County bested this number by a cool 13 percentage points to come in at 91 percent, meaning nine out of ten DUI arrests resulted in a conviction last year in the state’s eastern most county.  Worcester is no stranger to a high drunk driving conviction rate, as the county has been tops in the state for 5 of the last 6 years.  The State’s Attorney’s Office and the numerous police departments that patrol the county highways deserve much of the credit for the courtroom success, but there are other factors contributing to the unusually high conviction rate.

Worcester County is home to Maryland’s only beachfront resort, and thousands flock to Ocean City each summer to enjoy the sun, sand and plentiful nightlife.  While Ocean City will never be confused with South Beach, it is one of the most popular summer destinations in the region and attracts out of state tourists from Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Northern Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware. Many of these tourists come for mellow family vacations involving mini golf and boardwalk fries, but even more come to party.  There is a lot of drinking each night in Ocean City, and unfortunately a lot of driving as well.  Police are on high alert for drunk driving all summer long, and anyone pulled over driving at night in the area will immediately become a suspect.  This is especially true for teenagers and young adults, and also those with out of state license plates.  More drunk driving investigations does not always mean more convictions, but when it comes to younger defendants and out of state residents to odds increase for a conviction.

Out of state defendants are less likely to be versed in Maryland laws and more likely to try to resolve their case on the first trial date.  Ocean City and Snow Hill are not exactly centrally located, thus out of state defendants are less inclined to request a jury trial and appear at numerous court hearings. Drunk driving trials are almost a foregone conclusion unless the cases is tried in front of a jury, as a judge will typically believe an officer who makes a determination that a driver is impaired.  On the other hand, jurors are definitely more skeptical and require evidence in order to come back with a guilty verdict.  It’s one thing to fight your case till the very end when the courthouse is around the corner, but it’s a different animal when court is a five-hour drive away.

The two main concerns for anyone that is arrested for DUI are typically going to jail and losing the ability to drive legally. We touched on the likelihood for jail sentences in a previous post, so in this post we will stick to a discussion about the potential for dealing with a suspended license. It is important to understand that there are two different events that can result in a suspended license, and one generally has nothing to do with the other. The first event is the initial traffic stop where the officer will ask you to take a breathalyzer test to determine blood alcohol content or BAC. If you refuse to submit to the test then your license will automatically be suspended for 270 days for a first refusal and 2 years for a second or subsequent refusal. The suspension is administrative, and is initiated after the arresting officer submits an order of suspension to the driver, and forwards copies to the MVA. The suspensions were increased to these numbers in October of 2016 after the passage of the Drunk Driving Reduction Act.

The suspension for a refusal will actually go into effect after 45 days from the order of suspension, and you will be able to legally drive during this time. The paper order of suspension will serve as the temporary driver’s license. During these first 45 days defendants have three choices to make. First, they can elect to install the engine interlock device (also known as blow and go) in their car and then obtain a restricted license from the MVA. The restricted license will state that the driver is only allowed to drive a vehicle with the device, and for a refusal must be maintained for a minimum of one year. You can only obtain this type of restricted license after you present the MVA with a certificate of installation from the company that installed the interlock device in your car.

If you refuse the breathalyzer you also have the option of requesting a hearing in front of an administrative law judge. The hearing will take place at an MVA branch office or the OAH in Hunt Valley, Baltimore County. When dealing with a refusal case, a hearing officer may only uphold the suspension or reverse the suspension. They will not issue a restricted, work only license. The only realistic ways to win an administrative hearing are to prove that you didn’t refuse, or that the cop had no legal basis to request the test in the first place, and most hearings end up with the driver walking out disappointed, so think twice before requesting one. The third option for a driver that refuses the test is to accept the 9-month suspension. If the police did not confiscate your license you must turn it into the MVA or sign a form stating you lost it in order to get credit for serving the suspension.

Three State Police Troopers were injured last week in two separate drunk driving related accidents. Both accidents occurred in Prince George’s County and in an even greater coincidence both took place on Route 4. Also known as Pennsylvania Avenue, Route 4 runs from Washington D.C. to Calvert County, and passes through Upper Marlboro and Dunkirk. With easy access to and from 495 it is a highway that has witnessed more than its share of drug and alcohol related traffic incidents. State and local law enforcement officers frequently patrol this stretch of road, and have a heightened awareness for DUI on nights and weekends. These two recent accidents should only serve to increase the police presence in the coming months.

The first accident last week occurred around 3:30 a.m. as a trooper was attending to a disabled vehicle. While the trooper was stopped on the side of the highway an SUV driven by a 37 year old man from Upper Marlboro collided into his police cruiser. The impact then sent the cruiser lunging forward into a pedestrian who was standing beside a guardrail. Both the trooper and the pedestrian were taken to the hospital, while the SUV driver was arrested on multiple traffic citations and taken into custody by another trooper from the Forestville Barrack. The man now faces charges of DUI, DWI, reckless and negligent driving, failure to control speed to avoid a collision and willfully disobeying the direction of a police officer. He is currently awaiting a trial date in the District Court of Maryland for Prince George’s County not far from the scene of the accident.

The second accident occurred just a few days later after two troopers in separate police cruisers were responding to a call about a suspected impaired driver traveling the wrong way on the highway. In efforts to locate the impaired driver one of the troopers accidentally rear-ended the other, sending the lead car across the median and down an embankment. Both troopers were taken to the hospital, with one being air lifted to shock trauma in Baltimore. An officer from the Natural Resources Police later arrested the suspect that the troopers were trying to locate. This suspect did not contribute directly to an accident so will likely only face standard DUI and DWI charges, but you can bet that the prosecutor will call attention to the fact that two troopers were injured in the pursuit.

A Maryland man with an active felony warrant was recently arrested in Delaware after he parked next to a police officer with an open container of alcohol in his car. Just after 1 p.m. on an otherwise normal Friday afternoon a Rehoboth Beach police officer was writing a parking ticket when he observed the 29-year old man from Laurel pull up next to him. The officer would have paid little attention to the man, but for the two containers of alcohol that were immediately visible inside the car. After spotting the booze the Delaware cop had no choice but to investigate further, and when he did, he noticed the odor of an alcoholic beverage and other signs of impairment. While roadside sobriety exercises proved too difficult to administer due to a language barrier, the officer did feel he had enough evidence to arrest the man. A blood alcohol test confirmed the officer’s suspicions and the man was booked for drunk driving.

Upon confirming the man’s identity, Rehoboth PD then realized their drunken defendant had an outstanding felony warrant out of Wicomico County. The warrant was issued by the District Court in Salisbury back in January of 2016 and included one charge of felony third degree burglary. Other charges on the warrant included multiple counts of assault, malicious destruction of property and misdemeanor burglary in the fourth degree. The Laurel man also had a warrant for failing to appear in court for a jailable traffic citation resulting from driving without a valid license. Before he can answer for the charges in Maryland the defendant must first be transferred to the Wicomico County detention center. As of now he’s being held in the Sussex Correctional Institution in Delaware pending extradition.

This case is hardly the crime story of the year, but it is of interest to the Blog as we head into the summer months where thousands will flock to the beaches of Maryland and Delaware. In this particular case the defendant made it easy on the cop, but police officers will be focused on open container violations as the tourist season ramps up. This is especially true in Ocean City, where possession of an open container of alcohol actually carries the possibility of jail time. The Ocean City police force increases in size by dozens of officers during the summer months, and these new cops are often hungry to make their mark. Open container, minor in possession of alcohol, fake ID and disorderly conduct cases are some of the most common crimes during in June, July and August. Visiting the coast during the summer months can be a great time, but unfortunately hundreds of summer beachgoers are forced to come back to a Worcester County courtroom in the Fall to answer for a criminal citation or summons. Walking down coastal highway with a beer or refreshing cocktail may seem harmless but it’s illegal and not something that is overlooked by police officers. The OC PD will write hundreds of alcohol and marijuana citations this summer so be aware and make sure it isn’t your name on one of them.