Best DUI Attorneys

?The latest from the “Who guards the guardians?” department:

N.J. Police Looks the Other Way After Fellow Trooper Drinks and Drives

Trenton, NJ. ?April 25 — It had all the makings of a routine motor vehicle stop. Police officer Ronald Gorneau spotted a silver Toyota swerving and pulled it over. The driver, Sheila McKaig, admitted she had drunk “a lot” before getting behind the wheel, according to the incident report.

Then she told Gorneau she was a state trooper, and the stop in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, was no longer routine. Instead of being charged, McKaig was driven to the township’s police station, where fellow troopers picked her up.

It was not an isolated incident. ?In fact, it was the third time in three months in early 2008 that an off-duty McKraig was stopped by Hamilton police after drinking, according to a State Police document. ?Each time no blood-alcohol test was given, no charges were filed and no ticket was written. ?Today McKraig is still on the road as a state trooper, a position she has held for nine years.

All told, McKaig was stopped 10 times for various offenses over a 14-month period, but she has never received a traffic ticket in New Jersey, according to police records and a spokeswoman for the state judiciary.

Law enforcement experts call it “professional courtesy” when officers give fellow cops a pass they would not give the average driver. At the same time, however, New Jersey has been on a sustained crackdown on drunken driving. In 2008, police arrested 28,705 people for driving under the influence, and 154 people died in accidents involving at least one intoxicated person…?

Thanks to Gerry Rodman.
?

Read the original:
The Thin Blue Line

In the “Who will guard the guardians?” department…

Activists want penalties for cops who protect colleagues who drive drunk

Tuckahoe, NJ.? Jan. 20 — Reacting to a Journal News report in which 10 local police officers admitted anonymously that cops often give other cops a break when they are found driving drunk, (Tuckahoe Police Chief) Costanzo and others said no slack should be granted in DWI cases.

Carol Sears, president of the Westchester chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, called the report “very disturbing.”

“These are the people who are supposed to be protecting all of us,” she said. “We put our trust in them to keep drunk drivers off the road, and it turns out that when they’re the drunk drivers, they’re being protected by other police officers.”…

The issue comes in the wake of the arrests of White Plains Officer Joe Zepeda, Westchester Officer Joseph Kraus, Dobbs Ferry Officer Michael Huffman and county Correction Officer Patricia Yancy-Johnson on misdemeanor DWI charges following accidents within a three-week period. All four, who were off duty, refused to submit to chemical tests to determine blood-alcohol levels.

Sears said any officer who covers up for another officer should be brought up on charges.

“I’d like to see some agency or entity investigate this whole ‘blue wall of silence’ thing,” she said.

Welcome to the real world, Miss Sears.? To add to your enlightenment, see a few of my earlier posts, such as Who Will Guard the Guardians?, The DUI Double Standard, The DUI Double Standard II and Who Guards the Guardians?.

(Thanks to Lance Mixon.)
?

Original post:
Guarding the Guardians