DWI Charge For Suffolk Man Who Drove Drunk With 2 Kids In Car: Sheriff

HOLBROOK, NY — A Suffolk man was charged with driving while intoxicated under Leandra’s Law in Holbrook on Sunday, the county sheriff’s office said.

Just after 11 p.m., a deputy sheriff stopped a car on Nichols Road, near Patchogue Holbrook Road, after the driver, 40-year-old Bayport resident Jean Louissaint, failed to stay in his lane of travel, and he was found to be intoxicated, the sheriff’s office said, adding that there were two children, Louissaint's nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter inside the car.

Louissaint was charged with driving while intoxicated and was transported to the sheriff’s Enforcement Bureau for chemical testing and he refused to consent to a blood test, and so the District Attorney’s office was called into to assist in obtaining a warrant to test his blood alcohol concentration, according to a news release.

After the warrant was obtained, blood was drawn by the county Medical Examiner, and it was taken to the crime lab where it is pending analysis, according to the sheriff’s office.

The car Louissaint was impounded and his children were later turned over to their adult stepbrother, the sheriff’s office said.

Leandra’s Law, which is also known as the Child Passenger Protection Act, is a state law making it an automatic felony on the first offense to drive drunk with a person age 15 or younger inside the vehicle.

It’s named for 11 year-old Leandra Rosado who was killed on the Henry Hudson Parkway on October 11, 2009, when she was the passenger in a car accident involving drunk driving.

Sheriff Errol Toulon commended the deputies involved in Louissaint’s arrest.

“Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs are out patrolling our county’s roads to keep the public safe,” he said. “In this case, they not only prevented an intoxicated driver from causing an accident with another driver or a pedestrian, but they potentially saved the life of two children in the vehicle.”

“I am proud of their ongoing vigilance in protecting the residents of Suffolk County,” he added.