Atlantic City Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Police in Atlantic City, New Jersey arrested three juvenile boys on an early morning last week They accused the three of trying to rob a deliveryman from a Domino's pizza restaurant earlier that day. According to local news reports the officers set up a sting operation to try to apprehend the suspects.

The manager of the Domino's pizza restaurant contacted police officers by phone at approximately 3 a.m., reporting that the store had just received a call asking for food to be delivered. The manager indicated that he believed that the call came from a person who attempted to rob the store's deliveryman earlier.

There are a variety of defenses against charges of driving under the influence. We've shared storied before in this space about incidents where a drunk driving conviction was overturned or charges were dropped due to either the improper administration of a breathalyzer test or the improper calibration of the equipment that is supposed to measure a driver's blood alcohol concentration.

But a recent case raises another, albeit uncommon, defense to drunk driving charges. Forbes reports that a Zamboni driver was arrested this week for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. While this case is of course still making its way through the system it raises the question of DWI charges when the person is not driving a traditional vehicle. In a similar zamboni case several years ago, the New Jersey judge determined that a zamboni driver could not be convicted of driving under the influence.

When the police suspected a nightclub owner might be involved in illegal drug activity, they obtained a search warrant to attach a GPS tracking device to monitor his movements. But the police did not attach the device to the suspect's car until after the warrant had expired and did so outside of the jurisdiction in which they were authorized to do so. The Supreme Court ruled that attaching the GPS device amounted to a search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment and was therefore improper absent a valid warrant. The conviction was therefore reversed.

In this modern age of smart phones and other new technologies, there is more data floating about each of us floating around than ever before. These new technologies raise novel questions about the application of our bedrock constitutional freedoms and rights. The framers of the Constitution could likely never have imagined that a small device would be able to track every one of our movements via a global positioning satellite. Yet the rights enshrined in the Constitution and the Courts' evolving interpretation of those rights continues to protect us from abuses of power by law enforcement.

For most New Jersey citizens the most common reason to have an interaction with a police officer is due to a motor vehicle stop. Going a few miles over the speed limit or rolling through a stop sign can result in some unwelcome face time with you local law enforcement officer. Generally this results in a ticket and a fine or in the best case scenario just a warning to slow down a bit in the future. But other times this traffic stop is just the tip of the iceberg.

Once the officer has made the traffic stop, they take it as an opportunity to consider whether there may happen to be some other criminal activity. The officer will almost surely pay attention for any suggestion that the driver is under the influence of alcohol, but they may also simply try to determine if the person is "acting nervous" that was the reason a police officer gave for a more thorough investigation after pulling a New Jersey woman over. The reason gave for the initial stop was that the officer had observed something hanging from the cars' rearview mirror.