DUI Information

It’s well known that DWI, on its own, isn’t technically a criminal matter in New Jersey.

For a first offender who is pulled over and arrested, the consequences are mostly financial, with the long downside of a suspended driver’s license.

The equation changes considerably when driving drunk results in injuries to others, as one New Brunswick teen has now learned.

On May 12, Karla Mejia, then 17, caused a head-on collision that sent three people to the emergency room, two of them with serious injuries.

Two of the injured persons were passengers in Mejia’s car, the third being the driver of the vehicle she hit.

Earlier this fall, Mejia pleaded guilty in juvenile court to juvenile delinquency for conduct that, if committed by an adult, would constitute aggravated assault by auto.

At the end of December, Middlesex County Family Court imposed its sentence, ordering the now 18-year-old Mejia to serve two three-year sentences for the second degree crime of aggravated assault.

Drunk driving can change your life, and the lives of others, in dramatic ways.

If you’ve been arrested in a DWI incident, whether or not there were injuries, an experienced lawyer can help you avoid the worst consequences from our legal system.

Call Matthew Reisig today at 732-625-9660 for a free consultation with an experienced New Jersey DWI defense lawyer.

New Jersey’s own Fetty Wap is in hot water after he was caught drag racing with another vehicle on the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn.

According to police, Wap, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, was driving a black 2012 Mercedes westbound at approximately 100 miles per hour around 1:00 a.m. on Friday, November 3.

He was racing Zane Richards, 29, of Woodland Park, New Jersey, who was driving a 2008 Chevy Impala, also at speeds around 100 miles per hour.

Aside from the excessive speed, the pair were also making sudden lane changes, tailgating other drivers, and at one point, raced through an active construction zone.

To make matters worse, once Wap was pulled over, he gave police his New Jersey driver’s license, which is currently suspended.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wap also showed signs of intoxication, and blew a .09 on a field sobriety test. A second test at the police precinct confirmed the initial result.

Both men are facing 15 counts related to the incident, including reckless endangerment, illegal speed contest, DWI, reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, unsafe lane change, illegal signal, driving while alcohol impaired, and four speeding violations. Wap was arraigned the following morning.

If you’ve been arrested for DWI, a lawyer can make a big difference in your case.

Call Matthew Reisig today at 732-625-9660 for a free consultation with an experienced New Jersey DWI defense lawyer.

Not only are we in an election year, but we’re also in the midst of a cultural revolution when it comes to how states deal with marijuana.

For years, there was a nationwide push to carve out a quasi-legal medical marijuana category on the grounds of compassion for patients, but in recent years, the energy has all been directed toward removing legal prohibitions from recreational use of marijuana.

Colorado, Massachusetts, Washington State, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada, and Maine have all abandoned criminalization, and a total of 29 states and the District of Columbia have reduced enforcement through one mechanism or another.

One big question that policymakers in the state are beginning to grapple with is, if New Jersey becomes a recreational use state, how will that affect DWI cases involving marijuana?

After all, with alcohol, there are standardized testing methodologies that can be applied in a relatively impartial manner.

For marijuana, it’s easy to determine if someone has ingested the drug in the last 30 days or so, but much harder to show that it was consumed an hour before a traffic stop.

The state already relies on specially trained police officers called Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) to look for signs of impairment by drugs, and while every department in the state has a DRE, far more officers will likely need to become certified if the state moves toward legalization.

While you can be convicted of DWI just on the testimony of police and other witnesses, cases with less concrete evidence – like an Alcotest result – leave more room for a strong defense.

It seems inevitable that when it comes to marijuana law, changes are heading our way in New Jersey.

How we handle it is up to us.

If you’ve been arrested for DWI in New Jersey, an experienced lawyer can make a big difference in your case.

Call Matthew Reisig today at 732-625-9660 for a free consultation with an experienced New Jersey DWI defense lawyer.

Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Parrey, 28, has quite the pedigree.

Aside from working his way up in the County Prosecutor’s Office from a legal assistant, he’s also the son of Trenton’s police director.

Now he’s exploring other areas of life and law, most recently by being arrested for drunk driving in Hamilton.

Details were sketchy because the department’s public information office was closed over the weekend, but a spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that he’d been arrested.

Parrey’s father, Ernest Parrey, Jr., also acknowledged the arrest to reporters, saying, “We love him and support him. We’ll be there for him through this process.”

It’s unclear whether the younger Parrey will face consequences at work because of a DUI arrest.

He was sworn in as an assistant prosecutor last December, and seniority, or lack thereof, can often play a role in how prosecutions can affect one’s professional life.

While it’s never a good idea to be arrested and potentially make your employer look bad, it’s even worse when you work in a position of public trust.

Stephen Parrey likely has a difficult road ahead in his career.

Fighting A DWI Arrest In New Jersey Means You Need An Expert Defense Lawyer

If you’ve been arrested for DWI in New Jersey, get experienced legal help right away.

Call Matthew Reisig today at 732-625-9660 for a free consultation with an experienced New Jersey DWI defense attorney.

A car that was swerving and stopping erratically in the Holland Tunnel was stopped by Port Authority Police on the New Jersey side, producing a memorable encounter when the driver launched into a profane tirade against the officers.

Brenna Sermoneta, who works as the Director of Operations for the Clooney Foundation for Justice, wasn’t pleased when she was pulled over after police saw her car swerve across lanes in the tunnel around 9:30 on a Tuesday night.

After administering a field sobriety test, which Sermoneta failed, police took her into custody, prompting the woman to scream, “Get these f—— handcuffs off me!”

She was charged with DWI and reckless driving, and a breath test revealed that her blood alcohol content was well over the legal limit.

It’s unclear whether her employer, which advocates for people being abused by oppressive governments, will take any disciplinary action against her.

Many employers have policies in place to address issues like DWI, but in general, the more public a role a person has, the more likely they are to face issues at work.

If you’ve been stopped for DWI in New Jersey, don’t take chances.

Call Matthew Reisig today at 732-625-9660 and talk to an experienced New Jersey DWI lawyer for free.