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Two judges in separate territories arrested for DUI
Not even members of the judiciary are above the law when it comes to break the law. And this was particular
Judge Cynthia Imperato
evident that recent reports coming out from the Caribbean and the United States.
NBC 6 in South Florida during the past week reported that deliberations were set to continue in the case of a Broward judge facing Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and reckless driving charges in Palm Beach County.
Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato, 57, faces up to a year in jail if convicted on the charges, which stem from a November 2013 traffic stop. Imperato has pleaded not guilty.
According to police, an officer spotted Imperato driving erratically and nearly hitting another car in Boca Raton. After she was stopped, the officer could smell a strong odor of alcohol coming from her breath and noted that her eyes were red and glassy, her speech was slow and slurred, and
Judge Ramchand Lutchmedial
her face was red and flush, according to the arrest report.
Imperato refused to get out of her car and when the officer opened her door, she refused to walk to the front of the officer’s car, the report said. Imperato has been a Broward circuit judge since 2003 and ran unopposed in 2010. Her term is set to end in 2017.
And then the Trinidad Express reported that Judge in the morning, defendant in the afternoon is how Justice Ramchand Lutchmedial, vice-president of the Industrial Court, was slated to spend Monday last, having been charged the previous Friday under the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act. Lutchmedial was set to appear before a Tunapuna magistrate charged with failing to submit to a breathalyser test.
He is among several persons making a court appearance for offences related to “driving under the influence” (DUI).
Under the law, a police officer may require a driver or a person in charge of a motor vehicle to provide a specimen of breath for a test at (or) near the place where the request is made, if he (officer) has reasonable cause to believe that the person has consumed alcohol above the prescribed limit.
The law also states that a police officer can have reasonable cause to administer a breath test where: (a) he has smelt alcohol in the suspected person’s breath; (b) The suspected person has slurred speech; (c) The suspected person is swerving whilst driving on the road; and
(d) Where the suspected person has poor co-ordination.
The judge was arrested and charged during a police exercise in the Chaguanas district on Friday night.
According to police reports, officers were conducting an exercise when they noticed the vehicle swerving. The driver, who turned out to be Lutchmedial, was stopped and officers asked him to exit the vehicle.
The officers made certain observations as he exited the vehicle, according to the report. He was asked to provide a breath specimen. The driver refused and was taken to Chaguanas Police Station where he was charged.
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