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A North Carolina State trooper was arrested in Hendersonville Monday morning for allegedly driving drunk while on duty. The Highway Patrol says that the trooper met with a sergeant in the parking lot outside Sam’s in Hendersonville Monday morning.

The trooper reportedly was in his squad as he talked with his supervisor, a sergeant with the Highway Patrol. During the encounter, the sergeant claims that the 37-year-old smelled of alcohol, had glassy eyes and was slurring his speech during the conversation.

Those types of allegations are common in drunk driving arrest reports in North Carolina. Generally, many people are aware that North Carolina sets the legal limit to drive at 0.08 percent blood alcohol level.

Regardless of a driver’s size, experience, or any other factor individual to the driver, the state presumes impairment at a 0.08 percent or greater BAC level. However, police reports may often include descriptions of an officer’s alleged observations of a driver to support their alleged suspicions and to show alleged indicia of impairment.

The Highway Patrol says that the sergeant suspected that his colleague may have been under the influence as the two spoke in the parking lot. Later, authorities claim that the trooper took a breath test, which registered a 0.08 percent BAC reading.

The trooper has been charged with DWI and is scheduled to appear in court March 21. The North Carolina Highway Patrol says that the trooper resigned from the law enforcement agency after the DWI arrest. The trooper had been with the force for seven years and had been assigned to the Hendersonville office since 2007.

Sources:

• WLOS, “On-Duty Trooper DWI in Patrol Car,” Feb. 6, 2013
• WBTV, “Trooper charged with DWI while on duty, resigns after arrest, troopers say,” Nick Needham, Feb. 7, 2013

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

An out-of-state driver was recently pulled over by a North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper earlier this month. While it can be daunting for any driver to be pulled over for a traffic offense, or for a more serious investigation involving drunk driving, being pulled over in an unfamiliar state is always a difficult prospect.

As it turns out, the recent traffic stop involved reportedly involved the chief deputy from Martinsville, Virginia. She was ultimately arrested on suspicion of driving while impaired November 8. She is currently on administrative leave due to the DWI allegations, but her position in the Sheriff’s Office places her as second in command. The chief deputy was not on duty, and was driving her personal vehicle when the North Carolina trooper made the DWI arrest on U.S. 220 in Rockingham County, North Carolina.

A spokesperson in the highway patrol office in Rockingham County, North Carolina says that the DWI investigation is an open matter, and details of the DWI arrest have not been made publicly available, according to the Martinsville bulletin. However, the spokesperson did confirm the DWI arrest. The sheriff’s office in Martinsville, Virginia says that the situation is a personal matter, although the agency has placed the woman on leave and other disciplinary measures are being taken.

Sheriff’s officials in Virginia decided to publicly acknowledge the arrest after word of the DWI allegations began to spread throughout the community. But the public acknowledgement did not include any of the allegations.

It is important to note that DWI charges are matters that are brought in criminal court in North Carolina. Public information is not necessarily controlled by the same rules that are involved in court. Court rules and principles are intended to protect rights, maintain fairness and ensure that gossip or innuendo is not used to obtain criminal convictions.

Source: Martinsville Bulletin, “City deputy charged with DWI in North Carolina,” Nov. 20, 2012

• Our firm represents out-of-state drivers accused of traffic offenses and other criminal charges in the Greenville, North Carolina area. For more information on the firm, please visit the page for out-of-state drivers.

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

A North Carolina state highway trooper reportedly did not appear in court Monday. The court calendar apparently included at least 20 cases involving allegations of driving while impaired where the trooper was the arresting officer. In all, as many as 90 misdemeanor traffic charges were scheduled for hearing and in the absence of the state’s star witness, the Montgomery County judge presiding over the court calendar reportedly dismissed the charges.

It is unclear from news reports at what stage the court cases had reached before the trooper failed to appear in court Monday. The District Attorney’s Office apparently refused to indicate whether or not prosecutors will seek to pursue any of the cases, including the 20 or so cases involving DWI charges. It is equally unclear from the media whether the prosecutor or the judge initiated the dismissals.

The state trooper who had ticketed the defendants who had court appearances Monday is also a Candor town commissioner. He has been under fire after his own arrest on serious allegations that he unlawfully accessed a government computer. Some people apparently are speculating that the town commissioner’s legal difficulties may be one explanation for his failure to appear as a state trooper to support the prosecutor’s misdemeanor cases in criminal court.

It may be possible that many of the 90 dismissed cases, including the DWI charges, could be brought back into court for prosecution. In the meantime, those who had been charged with the variety of crimes may be in legal limbo as prosecutors decide how to proceed.

Greenville DWI defense lawyers understand that many people can be confused by many aspects of the complex rules of court in North Carolina. Often, in misdemeanor cases especially, many people in Pitt County and other areas of North Carolina are tempted to just pay the ticket or plead guilty in court to get the matter behind them.

It is important to discuss an individual case to consider speaking with an experienced criminal defense attorney when facing a charge to better understand what potential defenses may be available and what the consequences may arise as a result of pleading guilty to a crime.

Sources:

WFMY News, “Wayne Holyfield No Show In Court; 90 Traffic Cases ‘Dismissed’,” April 30 2012

WFMY News, “Candor Commissioner Wayne Holyfield Refuses To Resign Despite Community Demands,” April 10, 2012

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

A former North Carolina state trooper recently took his drunk driving charges to trial. The man was forced to retire after suffering an off-duty back injury. The 37-year-old reportedly says that he felt sick and was experiencing back pain Jan. 24, 2011.

He reportedly says that he took two prescribed medications to help him sleep and to control the pain. It appears that those two medications later became the basis for North Carolina DWI charges against the former trooper.

The man says that he remembers taking the prescribed codeine around 3:30 in the afternoon and an Ambien pill around 7:30 in the evening before going to bed that January night. The next thing that he remembers, according to the evidence at his DWI trial, is waking up in a magistrate’s office wearing his pajamas and pink slippers.

Prosecutors alleged that the man was driving a couple hours after he took the prescribed Ambien tablet and was in a car accident. The woman who was also in the crash says that the retired trooper told her a dreamlike tale about a strange investigation involving disguised cars, alcohol lights, helicopters and officers crashing into erratic drivers in some sort of crack down. The woman claims that the retired trooper showed his badge, but later said that he was retired.

The trooper was charged with impersonating an officer and DWI related to the alleged incident. Evidence was presented at trial Monday in Orange County District Court. The judge found the former trooper not guilty of impersonating an officer.

The judge found that the accused had duly admitted that he was retired and did not try to take advantage of his claim that he was an officer when he had displayed the badge. In acquitting the accused of the impersonation charge, the judge also said, “I believe the defendant was not in the state of mind to form criminal intent,” according to the Burlington Herald-Sun.

However, the judge did not acquit the defendant of the DWI charge. The judge reportedly reasoned that the defendant had not communicated with medical professionals about his codeine prescription when he obtained a later prescription for Ambien. The judge found the former trooper guilty of DWI related to the prescription medications.

The man was sentenced to a suspended 30 day jail term, with a fine, fees, court costs and community service. The man’s driver’s license was also taken, but he may be able to obtain limited driving privileges, according to the Herald-Sun.

Source: Burlington Herald-Sun, “Ex-trooper guilty of DWI,” Beth Velliquette, April 24, 2012

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