Ayotte, Victims' Families To Push For 'DUI Loophole' Fix At Presser

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte is scheduled to hold a press conference Tuesday, urging the legislature to close the “DUI loophole,” her latest tough-on-crime policy push.

Last year, Ayotte launched the Governor’s Highway Safety Task Force. Among its recommendations was changing how drivers are treated when they are stopped for alleged DUI and refuse to take a blood alcohol content (BAC) test.

“In New Hampshire, the administrative license loss for refusing to submit to a BAC test or any other roadside test is 180 days, which is lower than our neighboring states,” according to the report.

Data from the New Hampshire State Police reveals a staggering refusal rate of 72 percent among drivers suspected of being impaired, second only to Rhode Island.

That trend is a stark departure from the national landscape. A recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report places the average breathalyzer refusal rate across all 50 states at approximately 24 percent.

To address the situation, Ayotte is urging the legislature to pass SB 620, Sen. Bill Gannon’s proposal to increase the penalty for refusing to take breathalyzer tests.

Ayotte has emphasized that without the scientific evidence from a breathalyzer or blood test, it is significantly harder for the state to secure convictions. She has previously noted that the loophole results in “no accountability” for many impaired drivers, directly endangering New Hampshire’s roadways.

Currently, an impaired driver would get an automatic administrative license suspension of 180 days (6 months) for refusing to take the test, as opposed to potentially losing his license for at least nine months (with a potential for up to two years), significant fines, and mandatory participation in a substance abuse program if convicted.

Attempts to close the loophole have failed in the House twice before. Ayotte hopes this year will be different.

“It could be any one of our family members that gets hit by a drunk driver or a distracted driver or someone at excessive speed, and you would hope that legislators could put themselves in the shoes of being in that situation,” Ayotte said when the task force released its report.

To emphasize her point, Ayotte will be joined at Tuesday’s press conference by family members of victims of impaired drivers.

Under Gannon’s proposal, people who refuse testing will automatically lose their license for 12 months. Any subsequent refusal will result in a three-year loss of license. And, New Hampshire will start counting any out-of-state DUI convictions or test refusals for people stopped in New Hampshire.

During a Senate committee hearing on his bill, Gannon said as long as the current penalty structure stays in place, “you’re incentivized not to take the test. People believe a good lawyer can get them off.”

Interestingly, one of those “good lawyers” in New Hampshire is Bill Christie at Shaheen & Gordon.

On his website, he brags about getting a Massachusetts drunk driver charged with motor vehicle homicide off with “no jail time,” despite “‘Melanie’s Law’ requiring mandatory prison sentences for certain drinking-related motor vehicle offenses.”

“Bill successfully negotiated a plea agreement where the defendant received a suspended sentence and did not go to jail.”

In New Hampshire, Christie is known as the attorney in the notorious 2008 case of an impaired driver who killed Sean Powers, an Iraqi War veteran who had just finished his shift at the Hopkinton Police Department.

After the impaired driver hit Powers, he hid in the woods for hours, delaying the ability to get a BAC or blood test. Christie challenged the blood tests when they were finally taken, and the result was a plea deal for a minimal (less than four years) sentence in a homicide case.

Christie is the husband of Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington, a fact Granite State Republicans were quick to point out on the eve of the DUI press conference.

“Cinde Warmington already disqualified herself by promoting OxyContin and defending a notorious pill mill,” said GOP state party chair Scott Maltzie. “Now we learn her husband defended a drunk driver who killed a police officer. Granite Staters deserve leadership that stands with victims and law enforcement.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.