press release October 9, 2014
WOODBURY NJ–An appeals court ruled today (10/9) that a woman found guilty of drunk driving in Paulsboro on 3/6/11 did not prove her claims that she should have received a postponement in her municipal court hearing, that there was no evidence she refused to take a breath test or that she was an intoxicated driver.
At the 4/16/12 municipal court hearing where she was convicted of DUI, the defendant, Michelle Lynch, indicated she wanted a medical expert to testify she has asthma, which could have shown why she wasn’t able to blow into a breath-test device. But no formal request for a postponement was made, Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Margaret Cipparrone wrote in a brief opposing the appeal. Nor was a medical report produced, Cipparrone wrote.
Lynch was properly charged with refusal to take the breath test after agreeing to it but failing four times to provide a measurable breath sample, Cipparrone wrote.
Proof \”beyond a reasonable doubt\” that Lynch was driving drunk came from two witnesses who testified a woman in an SUV almost struck their vehicle on Route I-295 in West Deptford before exiting the highway and crashing into a drawbridge in Paulsboro, Cipparrone said. The couple’s 911 call to police resulted in Lynch’s arrest by an officer who reported the driver smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and denied she was in a collision.
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