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The Tormey Law Firm recently represented a client charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) in Bloomfield, NJ. Knowledgeable criminal defense lawyers Travis J. Tormey and Christopher Perry stood up for the client in Bloomfield Municipal Court and got the charges dismissed.

The client was charged with a first offense DWI. A conviction could have resulted in significant penalties, including driver’s license suspension for between seven months and one year, a monetary fine of up to $750, required attendance at Intoxicated Driver Resource Center (IDRC) alcohol education classes, and a sentence of 30 days in the county jail.

The client was placed under arrest after a police officer saw him sleeping in car parked in a parking lot. The client was asleep behind the wheel while the vehicle’s engine ran. The client later told police that he turned on the car so that he could heat the vehicle during the cold winter weather. This was important because it meant that the client did not have any intent to operate the motor vehicle. Mr. Tormey and Mr. Perry made this argument when they filed a motion to dismiss the charges. One of the elements that a prosecutor must prove in a New Jersey DWI case is intent to operate the car. As a result, the experienced attorneys with the Tormey Law Firm said that the case needed to be dismissed before trial.

Mr. Tormey and Mr. Perry called multiple witnesses and presented evidence that the client had texted his girlfriend and asked her to pick him up. This showed that he did not intend to drive the car anywhere.

Mr. Tormey also cited the landmark NJ drunk driving case of State v. Daly, which involved very similar facts: police found a defendant reclining in the driver’s seat of his car, which was parked outside a tavern. The vehicle engine was running in order to power the car’s heater. In State v. Daly, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the prosecution did not meet its burden of establishing that the defendant had operated the vehicle. This earlier ruling proved important in the recent Bloomfield DWI case.

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The municipal prosecutor ultimately agreed with Mr. Tormey and Mr. Perry that the charges should be dismissed, so the client was allowed to go free. This was a very positive outcome for the client and a big victory for the Tormey Law Firm LLC.