State v. Eckert, A-0216-08T4; Appellate Division; opinion by Baxter, J.A.D.; decided and approved for publication November 16, 2009. Before Judges Lisa, Baxter and Alvarez. On appeal from the Law Division, Gloucester County, Municipal Appeal No. A-19-08. [Sat below: Judge Allen-Jackson.] DDS No. 14-2-5894 [26 pp.]
This appeal involves a sentencing issue concerning the interplay between the driver’s license suspensions that are required following a conviction for refusal to submit to a breath test, N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a, and for driving while intoxicated (DWI), N.J.S.A. 39:4-50(a), when, by virtue of the “step-down” provisions of the DWI statute, the DWI conviction is treated as a first offense, thereby permitting a license suspension of three months. In the municipal court, the parties agreed that defendant would plead guilty to both DWI and refusal, but the refusal charge would merge with the DWI offense, and a sentence would therefore be imposed only on the DWI. No specific agreement was reached on the length of the driver’s license suspension to be imposed; at sentencing, the municipal court judge imposed a seven-month license suspension, even though the step-down provision of the DWI statute entitled defendant to a three-month license suspension. The Law Division, in a trial de novo, did likewise. Defendant appeals.
