NJ Judge Accused of Trying Penny Ploy to Thwart Alcohol Test
A New Jersey judge faces an ethics complaint alleging he tried to thwart an alcohol breath test by using ChapStick and putting a penny in his mouth.
Judge Peter Tourison of Cape May County pleaded guilty in June to driving while intoxicated, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. A breath test known as an Alcotest showed a blood alcohol level of .08, the threshold for drunken driving, the story says.
The Law Journal story says the ethics complaint by the Advisory Committee on Attorney Ethics goes beyond the guilty plea. It claims that when Tourison was at the police station after his arrest, he twice tried to apply ChapStick to his lips. That delayed the test because it cannot be administered within 20 minutes of any substances being placed within or around the driver’s mouth, the story explains.
The complaint also says Tourison placed a penny in his mouth when an officer turned his back, the story says. Herbert Leckie of DWI Consultants said the penny ploy is common, since the presence of an object in a suspect’s mouth may show an officer didn’t perform a proper oral inspection.
Tourison’s lawyer told the publication that his client put the penny in his mouth because he was nervous.
