October 21, 2015 – Natick District Court – Drunk Driving/OUI/DWI – Administrative License Suspension for Chemical Test Refusal (3 years)
Charges/Criminal Complaint Counts:
- OUI/DWI;
- Negligent Operation of Motor Vehicle;
- Marked Lanes Violation
Case Name: Withheld
Case Summary:
The defendant was arrested and charged with Operation of a Motor Vehicle while Under the Influence of Intoxicating Liquor; Negligent Operation of a Motor Vehicle; and, Marked Lanes Violation. The Commonwealth alleged that the defendant was arrested for suspected drunk driving, after being awakened suddenly while sleeping in her car at the side of the road. The police report alleged that the defendant failed the field sobriety tests. After being arrested and transported to the police station, the report alleged that the defendant refused to take the chemical test, which is commonly referred to as a breathalyzer test.
Accordingly, the defendant’s Massachusetts Driver’s License was suspended by the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles (“MA RMV”) for a period of three years. The administrative suspension was ordered for a period of three years, instead of one hundred-eighty days, because the defendant was under the age of twenty-one years old at the time of the alleged chemical test refusal.
Criminal Defense Attorney Vincent A. Tofani challenged the administrative license suspension before a MA RMV hearings officer. Attorney Tofani further petitioned the Natick District Court to hear a petition for further judicial review, and successfully argued that the MA RMV improperly suspended the defendant’s driver’s license, and that said license should be immediately reinstated. Following an evidentiary hearing, the Natick District Court overturned the license suspension, and ordered that MA RMV reinstate the defendant’s license to operate a motor vehicle, forthwith.
Criminal Case Results: Administrative License Suspension Overturned and Driver’s License Reinstated