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A laboratory test confirms that Rhode Island state Rep. Robert Watson’s blood alcohol concentration was below Connecticut’s legal limit for driving when he was charged with driving under the influence and possession of marijuana.

East Haven police say that Watson smelled of alcohol and marijuana when they stopped him on April 22. A breath test at the time put his blood alcohol concentration at .05 percent. The New Haven Register reports that the newer results, from a urine test, show it was .07 percent. Connecticut’s legal limit is .08 percent.

Watson, of East Greenwich, R.I., has said he consumed several drinks but wasn’t drunk. He said he uses marijuana to treat recurring pain from pancreatitis, but hadn’t used any the day of his arrest.

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House Republican Leader Robert Watson, the trenchant and bitingly acerbic leader of the tiny GOP bloc in the overwhelmingly Democratic House of Representatives in Rhode Island, is facing charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana possession after a random stop by Connecticut police as he was driving his pickup truck through a checkpoint in East Haven, Conn., Friday night.

A police report said his eyes were “extremely glassy and bloodshot,” his speech slurred, and he had difficulty performing a series of sobriety tests.

After handcuffing Watson and placing him under arrest, the arresting police officer said he found “a small plastic sandwich bag containing a green leafy plant-like substance and a small wooden marijuana smoking pipe” in Watson’s right pants pocket.

With his political future hanging in the balance, Watson, 50, is due back in Connecticut on May 11 to face charges in a New Haven court of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

As the story of his arrest — and subsequent release on a $500 non-surety bond — began to spread through Rhode Island on Monday, Watson, R-East Greenwich, invited his fellow House Republicans, by e-mail, to a caucus at the State House on Tuesday to “discuss with all of you my situation.”

He also issued a statement in which he explained what he was doing in East Haven at 9:30 p.m. on the Friday of a legislative break-week, and vehemently denied driving under the influence.

“I traveled to New Haven, Connecticut, on Friday afternoon to help a friend move,” he said. “Following dinner, I was traveling alone back home to Rhode Island in my pickup truck at approximately 9:30 p.m. …[when] I entered a sobriety checkpoint conducted by local police. It appeared that all vehicles were being stopped and I was detained as well.
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A drunken-driving charge has been dismissed against a Rhode Island federal prosecutor whose arrest sparked an internal investigation into whether police treated him favorably.

A Warwick judge agreed Monday to a city lawyer’s request to drop the charge against Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerard Sullivan.

Robert Sgroi says he made the recommendation partly because Sullivan admitted last week that there was enough evidence to prove he refused a chemical breath test when he was pulled over early on Thanksgiving morning. Sullivan has lost his driver’s license for seven months.

Warwick police say Sullivan mentioned several times that he was a federal prosecutor and knew their chief.

The chief has ordered an internal inquiry into why Sullivan was not initially charged with DUI.

Get more Rhode Island DUI news and legal changes.

Federal Prosecutor Gerald Sullivan was pulled over on Thanksgiving morning, charged with refusing a breath test that day and then charged with DUI almost a week later.

According to reports, Sullivan told officers he knew the police chief during his arrest, and his position as a federal prosecutor may have had some impact on how the arrest was handled. At this point, the U.S. Department of Justice plans to step in and handle the investigation. In the wake of what has occurred, Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney admitted his officers made a mistake.

He says there should have been a double charge immediately upon the arrest. Each of the 7 other arrests made by the department that weekend resulted in immediate DUI charges. McCartney says his department got it right in the other 7 cases. The fact Sullivan’s case was handled differently points to an inconsistently, likely related to his political position.

The department recently changed policy to enable officer to charge for DUI in the absence of a chemical test if enough other evidence is present. This eliminates the chance a visibly intoxicated person can avoid arrest just by refusing the chemical test, but it also makes prosecuting the DUI much more difficult. MADD and other activist groups were behind the change.

McCartney says his department did the right thing by charging the DUI after the fact. He says a review of the case and the facts provided significant evidence to do so. McCartney has chosen not to follow one additional protocol, however. He will turn the case directly to the Feds instead of the state police. McCartney says the state police will have a conflict of interest as Sullivan was assigned to Rhode Islands and knows many people within the department there very well.

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After days of speculation over whether U.S. Attorney Gerard Sullivan received preferred treatment when he was pulled over on Thanksgiving, Police Chief Stephen McCartney announced Sullivan will be charged with drunk driving.
The public figure was arrested Thanksgiving morning when officers noted him driving erratically. They had received reports of a drunken driver in a BMW, later identified as Sullivan. Sullivan allegedly told the officers he was a U.S. Attorney and was friendly with the police chief. At that point, he was charged only with failing to comply with the request for a chemical test.

A local news station is also reporting Sullivan was again arrested in the early morning hours of November 1. There is no police report of that arrest, but the news station claims the Attorney paid a $150 fine for some incident. The full report can be viewed below:

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After a Target 12 investigation about drunk driving laws in Rhode Island, a state lawmaker is calling for change.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the Ocean State is one of the least pro-active states in preventing alcohol-related crashes. State Senator Leonidas Raptakis is now proposing three new penalties in a DUI law.

He said anyone suspected of DUI should have their vehicle impounded for 90 days, and he’d double the period of time a driver’s history can be examined from five years to ten years.

Penalties would also be increased for those convicted of hurting others while driving drunk.

Source: WPRI News

Violation of Rhode Island’s drunk driving laws may be proven by demonstrating that the driver is mentally or physically impaired by consuming alcohol and/or drugs, or by showing that the driver drove a vehicle in Rhode Island with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08% or higher in violation of Rhode Island’s “per se” laws.

Rhode Island OUI prosecution Rhode Island OUI prosecutions that relate to the driver being under the influence of alcohol will typically attempt to prove the Rhode Island drunk driving was under the influence of alcohol or drugs by introducing evidence of an impaired driving pattern, poor performance on the standardized field sobriety tests, signs and symptoms of the driver such as red and watery eyes and slurred speech, and chemical test results.

All of these, alone and in combination, are used by the government to attempt to show that the driver was under the influence of alcohol, and that there was mental or physical impairment as the result of consuming alcohol or other drugs.

Rhode Island OUI enforcement Rhode Island OUI enforcement techniques to apprehend Rhode Island DUI drivers include blanket patrols, publicized enforcement campaigns, the use of standardized field sobriety tests, and mobile videotaping.

Historically, sobriety checkpoints have not been utilized in Rhode Island OUI cases. Each of these Rhode Island drunk driving enforcement techniques presents opportunities for a skilled drunk driving defense attorney. For example, standardized field sobriety tests are only valid if the FST’s are administered in the prescribed, standardized manner, and if standardized clues are used to interpret the OUI suspect’s performance; if any of these elements are changed, the validity of the field sobriety test is compromised.

Rhode Island OUI prosecution Rhode Island OUI prosecutions on the “per se” theory do not consider whether or not the driver was impaired. This law is violated by showing that, at the time of driving, the Rhode Island OUI suspect had a blood or breath alcohol content of .08% or higher. It is not necessary to prove that the drunk driving suspect was impaired. This is a theory of DUI that is based only on body chemistry.

Refusing to take the chemical test following arrest for Rhode Island OUI or DUI carries its own criminal penalty, which can include fines, community service, license suspension, OUI educational classes, and other sanctions. The prosecutor may seek to introduce evidence of the refusal as consciousness of guilt.

Rhode Island OUI conviction Rhode Island OUI convictions are priorable, which means that if the accused has suffered a prior conviction for a similar crime, or commits a similar crime in the future, the punishment will be increased. Rhode Island has a “washout” or “lookback” period of 5 years, meaning that if the prior offense is more than 5 years old, it will not count for purposes of enhancing a current OUI or drunk driving charge.

Most Rhode Island DUI charges are misdemeanors; however, a third-offense OUI within 5 years is a felony. Additionally, Rhode Island OUI penalties are enhanced for DUI convictions where the blood or breath alcohol level (BAC) is .15% or higher.

Rhode Island OUI/DUI punishment Rhode Island OUI / DUI punishment includes fines, jail (or jail alternatives, if handled by a knowledgeable OUI defense lawyer), community service, alcohol education programs, and the possibility of an ignition interlock device being installed in each car the Rhode Island OUI offender has access to.

Rhode Island OUI conviction Rhode Island OUI convictions also result in separate Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles license suspensions. Rhode Island OUI / DUI license suspensions are 90 days for a first-offense, 3 years for a 2nd offense within 10 years, 5 years for a 3rd offense within 10 years, and 7 years for a 4th offense within 10 years.

Interstate Driver’s License Compact Rhode Island is a participating state in the Interstate Driver’s License Compact, which shares information regarding drunk driving arrests and convictions between states.

Not Drinking and Driving is always the best practice ,but if you are seeking a Rhode Island DUI Lawyer visit the Rhode Island DUI Law Directory.
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