According to court documents, a 28-year-old former broker with Douglas Elliman was charged with DWI in New York on June 2. During the incident, the woman reportedly accused the law enforcement officers who charged her with picking on her because she was rich and because they were poor.
Reportedly, officers spotted the woman driving a 2016 Range Rover in Upper Manhattan around 1 a.m. They allege that she swerved, and they pulled her over. Police claim that the woman said it was a new car and that is what caused her to swerve. They also claim that she said she had only had one drink and repeatedly said she wasn’t drunk.
The woman reportedly refused to do roadsides and told the police to just arrest her. At the police station, she reportedly refused to complete a breathalyzer test. The woman was released without bail at her arraignment. Her license was suspended by the judge. She reportedly has one prior DUI offense from 2009 and another arrest that was sealed.
The potential penalties for a drunk driving conviction are harsh and can potentially include jail time. They are more severe when the person has had multiple offenses. As a result, a person who has been charged with driving under the influence may want to meet with a criminal defense attorney as soon as possible in order to start building a strategy to combat the allegations. One possible line of defense could be to challenge the traffic stop that led to the charge as being made without probable cause, which if successful could result in at least the exclusion from evidence of any breath or sobriety test.
Source: New York Post, “Ex-broker busted for DWI blasts cops for ‘picking on rich people’,” Rebecca Rosenberg, June 6, 2016
