RED BANK- After being found guilty of driving while intoxicated (DWI) and given the minimum sentence for the charge, Red Bank publisher Claudia Ansorge is set to appeal the ruling.
The DWI charges against Ansorge, 63, of Red Bank, stem from an April 19, 2006, accident during which she struck a man with her vehicle around 9:30 p.m. while traveling westbound on East Front Street in Red Bank.
The man, Robert Lisowsky, 59, of Brick, later died at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, where he had been transferred to the trauma unit.
Municipal Judge William Himelman found Ansorge, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, guilty of DWI during her Jan. 30 trial.
“The thing that bothered me the most was … why wasn’t she able to observe someone walking across at least 50 feet of roadway in a lighted area?” said Himelman, adding, “Why couldn’t she observe what was happening, and to me the only reason she probably couldn’t have was because she had a little too much to drink.”
A video was shown in the Red Bank municipal courtroom of Ansorge in police custody reviewing her statement around 1 a.m. on the night of the accident.
According to her statement, Ansorge ordered two martinis while at dinner with a friend before the incident.
Himelman said he found her guilty of the lower-level DWI charge that includes a $256 fine, $33 in court costs, $50 in costs to the Violent Crime Bureau, and $275 in surcharges and other costs.
The charge also carries 12 hours in the intoxicated drivers’ resource center and a 90-day suspended license.
After the trial, Ansorge’s attorney Peter O’ Mara, of Little Silver, said that they would definitely appeal the ruling.
According to Red Bank Municipal Prosecutor James Butler, Ansorge would have to appeal to state Superior Court in Monmouth County within 20 days of the Jan. 30 decision.
“It was a close case,” said Butler after the trial. “In my perception it could have gone either way.”
Himelman listened to testimony from Red Bank police Lt. Darren McConnell, who administered field sobriety tests to Ansorge at the scene of the incident, from the driver of the vehicle behind Ansorge’s Mercedes, from the friend Ansorge went out to dinner with that night, and from forensic science consultant Richard Saferstein before rendering his decision.
McConnell, who heads the Traffic and Safety Bureau, testified he smelled alcohol on Ansorge’s breath and saw that she was swaying as she stood which, he said, are possible clues to a person being under the influence of alcohol.
He also saidAnsorge failed three of the four psycho-physicals or field sobriety tests, that she was asked to perform, with the exception of the alphabet test.
Himelman said he was bothered by the fact Ansorge was not able to follow Mc- Connell’s instructions during the psychophysicals and also took that into consideration when making his decision.
However, he said that the blood sample taken to determine her blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was not used in his decision.
State police found Ansorge to have a BAC of .081, while another laboratory found her BAC to be .072.
According to the state Department of Law and Public Safety, a person is guilty of drunken driving if he/she operates a motor vehicle with a BAC of 0.08 percent or greater.
“The reason I don’t think a per se [the higher level] violation has been proven is because of the fact that you do have the reports indicate there is some possibility of analytical error,” said Himelman.
Saferstein testified that all scientific analysis holds a margin of analytical error, and in this case the analytical error is in the range of plus or minus 5 to 8 percent.
“There is a reasonable degree of scientific certainty that the defendant’s blood alcohol level was less than 0.08,” Saferstein said.
After rendering his swift decision, Himelman noted that it was a difficult decision for him to make and that he had wanted to find Ansorge not guilty.
Ansorge is the publisher of the monthly Welcome! A Tip Sheet to a Hip Town!, known as the Red Bank Tip Sheet, published by Ansorge Unlimited.
In May 2007, a Monmouth County grand jury declined to indict Ansorge on charges of hitting and killing Lisowsky with her vehicle as he was crossing the street.
Lisowsky, who worked at Riverview Medical Center, was a 25-year employee of Meridian Health and was returning to work when he was struck by Ansorge’s vehicle.