Morristown New Jersey DWI AttorneysTravis Tormey and Christopher Perry, members of the Tormey Law Firm LLC, recently defended a client who faces charges for driving while intoxicated (DWI) and simple possession of marijuana under 50 grams in Long Hill Township, New Jersey. Based on the severity of the charges, the case was handled in the Long Hill Municipal Court, not the Morris County Superior Court in Morristown, NJ.

Since the client had been charged with a first offense DWI, he was subject to significant penalties that included suspension of his driver’s license for up to 12 months, required attendance at alcohol classes held at the DMV, a serious fine and court costs of approximately $800, and as many as 30 days in the county jail. Additionally, marijuana possession charge carried severe penalties that included a permanent criminal charge on the client’s record, a fine of $1,000, an additional driver’s license suspension of up to two years, and a sentence of up to six months in the local county jail if convicted.

Mr. Tormey and Mr. Perry began their defense of the client by reviewing the evidence in the case. They noticed that the client had actually registered a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .06 percent, which is below the legal limit in NJ of .08 percent. Moreover, the official police reports contained nothing that would suggest that the client was under the influence of marijuana at the time of the stop. Although Long Hill Township police took a urine sample which later came back positive for marijuana, this did not conclusively prove that the client was under the influence of pot at the time because marijuana typically remains in a person’s system for around 30 days after ingestion.

As far as the marijuana possession charge, police allegedly found our client with flakes of marijuana on his person. However, there were not enough flakes for the NJ police lab to test the evidence. Without a positive lab report for the marijuana, the State was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that our client possessed marijuana.

Based on these important evidentiary issues, the charges were thrown out and our client was able to avoid being convicted of either charge. This was a tremendous result for our client and a huge success for the Tormey Law Firm.