Unsigned form sufficient to establish jurisdiction

A new court decision with regard to DWI in the state of New Hampshire was published earlier this month.  In James Kerouac v. New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’’s decision to suspend the driver’’s license of the plaintiff, Kerouac.

According to the plaintiff, during the DWI arrest:

[Chief Campbell] checked a box that indicated that the plaintiff had failed to submit to testing. In section V of the form, titled “Officer’s Report,” Chief Campbell listed his name as the officer who swore that he requested the plaintiff to submit to testing and checked the box indicating that the plaintiff had refused testing. Chief Campbell neglected, however, to sign this part of the form, although there was a place for his signature.

The plaintiff’s license was suspended because he was deemed to have refused testing. He requested an administrative hearing to challenge this, asserting that the New Hampshire Department of Safety (department) lacked jurisdiction over the matter because Chief Campbell had failed to sign section V of the form.

The Court upheld the juridiction of the Department of Safety, indicating that an unsigned form is sufficient to warrant jurisdiction in suspension of a license during a DWI arrest.

Ex-Trooper Gets 5 Years in Fatal DWI Crash in New Jersey

Every day there is saddening news with regard to fatal DWI incidences. My condolences to the family, and I am hopeful Mr. Brozyna will think twice before getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.

FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — A former New Jersey state trooper was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for a drunken-driving crash that killed a man whose vehicle he rear-ended.

Christopher Brozyna, 29, of Hazlet resigned from the state police immediately after pleading guilty last November to vehicular homicide and drunken driving in state Superior Court in Freehold.

The crash on Sept. 14, 2007, on Route 35 in Middletown Township killed 55-year-old Ernesto Stamaria of Old Bridge.

Brozyna was off duty and driving his personal vehicle at the time.

His blood alcohol level was “substantially in excess”” of New Jersey’’s limit of 0.08 percent, Monmouth County prosecutor Luis Valentin said.