Driver racks up 2 DWI charges in single night...

News Observer ^ | Saturday, August 30, 2003 | Oren Dorrel

[ConservativeMan55]

By OREN DORELL, Staff Writer

A Raleigh man was arrested twice Friday morning on charges of drunken driving -- once after an accident and again three hours later after returning to his car and driving it away from where it was parked. "It was absolutely terrible," Sougata Mukherjee , editor of the Triangle Business Journal, said Friday afternoon, summing up a night that began at Sullivan's Steakhouse on Glenwood Avenue. "This is the first time something like this has happened to me." Mukherjee's first arrest occurred after his 2001 Nissan Pathfinder rear-ended a 2001 Saab driven by Winston Cavin, a News & Observer night metro editor who was on his way home from work. There were no injuries.

The accident occurred near the intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Lead Mine Road at 12:34 a.m., Raleigh Police Officer C.M. Warner wrote on Mukherjee's arrest warrant.

According to court documents, Mukherjee, 39, of 8910-210 Half Moon Court in Raleigh, smelled of alcohol and registered 0.16 on a breath test -- twice the legal limit. He was transported to the Wake County jail, where his license was seized and revoked because of the DWI charge, and he was released on a written promise to appear.

It is not clear where he went from there, but about 3:45 a.m., Mukherjee was behind the wheel of his Nissan again when he was stopped by the same officer at Creedmoor and Lynn roads in North Raleigh, according to a second arrest report.

That time, he registered 0.11 on the breath test. He was arrested and booked on a second DWI charge and on a charge of driving while his license was revoked, according to court records. His car was seized.

Mukherjee's driving record is otherwise clean in North Carolina, according to Division of Motor Vehicles records. A single DWI conviction usually carries a minimum sentence of 24 hours in jail or a treatment program and a one-year license revocation.

Asked why he returned to his car, Mukherjee replied, "I was in total shock. I don't know."

After the second arrest, he was placed in the pretrial release program, a court-administered program that enforces court dates and good behavior with the threat of jail time. He was released into the custody of a sober adult sometime after 7 a.m.

Mukherjee said he told his boss about the incident but has not learned whether there will be any consequences.

Staff writer Oren Dorell can be reached at 829-8963 or odorell@newsobserver.com.

[CobaltBlue]

I can't think of anywhere that you can walk down the street carrying a bottle of beer.

Even in New Orleans, where you can walk down the street with an alcoholic beverage in your hand, you need to put it in a plastic "go cup" because of the risk of broken glass.

You can do like the winos do and wrap a brown paper bag around your bottle, but I don't think that fools anybody.

Bottom line, put your drink in a plastic cup.

Or you can stay home, you probably won't get in trouble that way.

[Porterville]

Yeah, but why shouldn't a person be allowed to walk down the street with a bottle of beer like in most civilized nations???

[CobaltBlue]

Never been to Mardi Gras in California but I am from New Orleans originally and used to volunteer with the ACLU (I know, I know, booo hisss) during Mardi Gras to work with the police getting drunk tourists out of jail and on their way. The cops don't really want to keep them but they aren't going to put sloppy drunks back on the street, period. They get guys falling down, vomiting, urinating all over themselves, passing out in the middle of the street. They're subject to being victimized, "rolled," robbed, and cause no end of trouble.

If you never heard of "rolling a drunk" it's robbing them blind, sometimes even taking their shoes and their clothes.

Most people who have been arrested have a different story to tell than the arresting officer, you can make book on it.

[CobaltBlue]

I don't know about "civilized nations," I am from the USA and the least civilized place I've ever been is my home town, New Orleans. You can't carry a beer bottle in New Orleans because the drunks drop the beer bottles, they break, and everybody cuts their feet. It makes a mess.

Back when I was a student at LSU, the frat boys carried around beer bottles after the football games and smashed them everywhere. Fun for frat boys, not fun for townies.

Probably the same every place you have frat boys.

People who come to the US from Latin America get culture shock. They think they can stand around with beer bottles with their compadres on Friday night, just like back home.

Here in Fairfax, they get arrested. The local defense bar calls it "Hispanic in public." $50 fine. Next!

[Porterville]

I was arrested walking home with a buzz, and continually asked for a sobriety test, a breathalyzer anything...I wasn’t walking home wit a beer or anything like that. … I was dressed real nice, I was in good shape, there was no reason to take me to jail and treat me so poorly.

[Porterville]

If you ever been anywhere else in the world, you'd know that people are allowed more freedom without harassment from the Police Department looking to fine people for every infraction... you know why??? Because they don't have money in other nations, so the cops don't bother on the small stuff.

[CobaltBlue]

I wasn't there, so don't can't judge.

My own brother got busted in New Orleans in a very bad situation. He was talking with a girl in a bar, and a couple of guys took exception to him paying attention to this particular woman. One thing led to another, he wound up stepping into an alley to discuss the matter (very bad move) and they beat the stuffing out of him, then arrested him for resisting arrest (yeah, they were cops).

I tried to bail him out as soon as possible - sorry, it was overnight, could't get a judge to let him out before regular arraignment and I did try calling a judge at his residence - they let him out without bail at dawn like it was a drunk type arrest.

The DA offered to drop the charges if he'd agree not to sue them for violating his civil rights. I was a first year law student, listened to the advice of a lawyer I knew and advised him to do it. Now that I am a lawyer, I wouldn't.

Yes, cops abuse their discretion.

On the other hand, the reason they have so much discretion is because it is an ultra difficult job, one of the hardest in the world. So, sometimes we give too much slack to the bad ones. Makes it hard on the good ones. But, I believe, for the most part they are good.

[Porterville]

Sure the good, my brother is a cop, but the point is many police agencies encourage a certain behavior, a system of abuse.

[CobaltBlue]

"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." Sound familiar?

Doesn't feel good to be on the receiving end. Sorry you had to go through that.