Plea deals done for refusing to take DWI test, judges rule

Until now, prosecutors and defense attorneys used a unique type of plea bargain that prevented motorists who refused the tests from losing their licenses for the usual seven months by pleading guilty to DWI, as well.

But a state Appellate Division panel ruled Monday that judges can no longer merge two separate crimes — refusal to take the test and driving drunk — as a way of knocking the mandatory sentence down to three months.

To do otherwise is “a subterfuge that preserves the refusal violation in name only,” Judge Linda Baxter wrote for the panel. One driver could plead guilty only to refusal and get a seven-month suspension, while another who took the test admits to DWI and draws three months, under state statutes.

Seems unfair, the judges agreed.

“Sentencing defendant to a three-month suspension, under the guise of merge of offenses, is, in reality, nothing more than a de facto dismissal of the refusal charge,” Baxter wrote. “We will not countenance such an irrational result.”

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