Governor signs
new DWI legislation
BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
TRENTON — A new state law aims to crack down on repeat drunken drivers.
A bill co-sponsored by Assemblymen Upendra Chivikula (D-Somerset) and Peter J. Barnes Jr. (D-Middlesex) to prevent repeat drunken-driving offenders from getting off with lesser punishments was signed into law by Gov. James E. McGreevey recently.
The new law requires prosecutors and judges to examine a convicted drunken-driver’s driving record before sentencing to determine whether he or she is a repeat offender.
The measure, which takes effect Aug. 1, was proposed after Raritan Township resident Bobby Czyz, a two-time world champion boxer, was improperly sentenced as a first-time offender following his second and third offenses in 1999 and 2000. That discovery was made after he was arrested a fourth time for drunken driving in Readington Township in February 2003. Czyz was eventually resentenced for the earlier convictions and stripped of his license for 20 years.
"Prosecutors and judges are the last line of defense to ensure that repeat offenders stay off our roads and prevent them from harming innocent people," said Barnes, chairman of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee.
The legislation echoes one part of a series of DWI reforms introduced by state Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, in March.
Under Buono’s proposal, the requirement to review driving records would also extend to motorists caught driving on a suspended license.
Buono introduced her package in response to the death of Michael Partipilo, a 17-year-old honor student at St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen, who died from head injuries sustained when a work van driven by a four-time DWI offender collided with his Jeep on Washington Avenue in Piscataway the evening of March 12.
At the time of the accident, police said the van’s driver, Philip Gonzalez, 43, Edison, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.245, more than three times the legal limit.
The state Motor Vehicle Commission confirmed that Gonzalez had four prior convictions for DWI, the last of which took place in Metuchen in 1999. In that conviction, state officials said, he mistakenly received a six-month suspension of his driving privileges as opposed to the 10 years a fourth offense mandates.
Buono’s reforms were passed by the Senate June 21 and await consideration by the Assembly. These reforms include eliminating "step down" provisions for repeat offenders that downgrade subsequent offenses that occur more than 10 years after a previous conviction, and increase mandatory prison time for driving while on the revoked list from 10 to 30 days.
According to the state police, of the more than 28,000 drunken-driving arrests made in 2002, more than 5,200 of the subsequent convictions were for second or third offenses.