Riverhead DUI/DWI Defense Law Blog

In a recent post, Suffolk County readers observed the example set by Reese Witherspoon -- at least in terms of what not to do when pulled over on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Although Ms. Witherspoon was only a passenger in the car, her verbal challenges to the officer’s authority to pull them over earned her an arrest for disorderly conduct.

That lesson might be useful to remember for drivers who rely too much on a recently ruling by the United States Supreme Court on the lawfulness of DWI blood testing without a warrant. The Court affirmed the principle that a warrant is required to conduct a search and seizure. Although there may be an exception to that warrant requirement in the case of evidence facing imminent destruction, the Court further determined that such exceptional circumstances ordinarily do not apply to a suspect’s blood alcohol levels. As a result, enforcement officials will still be required to obtain a warrant before obtaining a blood sample from a DWI suspect.

New York fans of Reese Witherspoon might have to recalibrate their image of the "Legally Blond" star. The actress was recently jailed on a late Friday night for allegedly disorderly conduct displayed during her husband's concurrent drunk driving arrest. It turned out to be a whirlwind weekend for the film star. Shortly after her release from jail, the star attended the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, where her new film "Mud" premiered.

According to the arrest record, a state trooper observed erratic driving and swerving from a motor vehicle driven by the star's husband, Jim Toth. The state trooper pulled the car over and interviewed its driver. That led to a field sobriety test and a Breathalyzer test. Mr. Toth reportedly did not pass the tests. In fact, the breath test returned a blood alcohol level of 0.139.

Long Island movie fans may have seen car chase scenes where a speeding car enters a highway on the wrong side of traffic, resulting in a high-speed obstacle course of dodging oncoming cars. In fact, New York City has been the set for several such movie scenes.

In real life, however, driving into oncoming traffic almost always begins with a drunk driver and ends in tragedy. Today's story is no different.

A Suffolk County man was recently arrested in the early hours of a Sunday morning for driving while intoxicated off the Long Island Expressway in Lake Ronkonkoma. Unfortunately, police responded to the scene only after the driver had already hit a pedestrian. Police report that they found the pedestrian in the roadway and pronounced him dead at the scene. Additional details about the DWI arrest have not yet been released.

Suffolk County drivers who partake in local nightlife may sometimes feel like the police set up enforcement patrols specially targeting the Saturday night bar crowd. Under New York law, however, an officer typically cannot randomly stop a car. Rather, the officer usually must observe a traffic offense or some indicia of impaired driving before pulling over a driver.