Daughter's Tip Leads To DWI (N.J.S.A. 39:4-50) For Father
On December 22, 2008, the Supreme Court rendered a decision in State v. Amelio. In this DWI case, the issue was whether the police had a reasonable basis to stop a drunk driver, based upon his daughter's telephone call to a police dispatcher. The Justices ruled that the phone call to police from the driver's (juvenile) daughter, reporting that her father was driving drunk, constituted adequate justification for the police to stop the defendant/father for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. The Justices reasoned that the daughter's tip was not anonymous in nature, but rather from a known family member who risked prosecution for making a false report in the event she was lying. The justices gave no weight to the defense's arguments that the daughter was a juvenile and only provided limited information that her father was driving drunk. The Court held, that the tip gave the police a reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant’s car.
By: Thomas H. Martin, Esq.
