New Jersey Criminal Attorney Blog

A man was charged with aggravated assault after allegedly trying to ram his car into a Bergen County police officer who pulled him over in Hackensack.

The officer pulled over the driver for a routine traffic stop after observing him allegedly weaving in and out of lanes. When the officer approached the car, the driver sped off allegedly forcing the officer to jump out of the way. The officer caught up with the driver and arrested him in Paterson.

In addition to being charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, the driver was faces charges of eluding arrest, being a fugitive from justice, speeding, reckless driving and failure to pull over.

New Jersey State Police will be stepping up enforcement of aggressive driving laws as part of a campaign to reduce collisions between trucks and cars expected to begin in December.

The campaign will include a public relations component with radio advertisements and educational materials encouraging car and truck drivers to be more aware of each other, but it will also include additional enforcement. Police will be on the lookout for violators who risk truck-car collisions, and could increase tickets for following too closely or weaving between lanes. .

The crackdown comes after state police launched another program to target tailgaters last month. The new program is part of a federal initiative called the Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks program, and will be funded by $800,000 in federal money.

In Bergen and Passaic Counties last year, there were nine deaths and 818 injuries as the result of collisions between trucks and cars.

If you've received summonses for driving without a license, help is available.

A conviction for driving without a license could prevent you from obtaining a license in the future and subject you to fines and a possible prison sentence. An article in today's Newark Star Ledger cited the example of one man who racked up 20 traffic tickets and several summonses for driving without a license . Through a special program in Newark designed to encourage those wanted for non-violent crimes to turn themselves in, he was permitted to work out a payment schedule that would help him clear his name and obtain a driver's license.

But even where such programs are not available, municipal court judges have a range of penalties they can impose when a motorist is convicted of driving without a license. Additionally, the penalties vary depending on whether the driver did not have a current driver's license, or whether the driver never had a driver's license to begin with.

More importantly, a person cannot be convicted of driving without a license if the driver merely fails to show a valid driver's license to the officer requesting it. In some cases, the driver may at worst be guilty of refusing to exhibit a driver's license, which is punishable by a fine.

A Westwood Man allegedly tried to rob a bank on Route 17 Tuesday morning in Mahwah by passing a note to the teller, but fled after the teller activated an alarm.

As police searched for the man, schools in the area were placed on lockdown, but officers in the areas soon caught up with him. Police found the man, 33-year-old Anthony B. Dewberry, in a nearby parking garage and found the note in his car.

Dewberry was charged with robbery and bail was set at $250,000.

New Jersey and New York are among several states that have banned texting while driving. Text messaging qualifies as using an electronic communication device, which is illegal under state statute 39:4-97.3. Violators face a possible fine.

But an article the New York Times this weekend raised questions about whether there could be even greater penalties in the future. The article discussed the British legal system's response to texting while driving through the case of a 22-year-old woman who was sentenced to 21 months in prison after her texting led to a deadly accident.

Closer to home, a New York Times - CBS News poll explored attitudes toward texting while driving. When asked if texting while driving should be illegal, 97 percent answered yes. Asked how severe the punishment should be, 50 percent said it should be punished "about the same" as drunk driving.

Meanwhile, texting continues to be a hot topic with regard to motor vehicle safety. Recently, President Obama banned federal employees from texting while driving. And this summer, a study by researchers at Virginia Tech found that texting while driving increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by 23.2 times.

Given the building public attention to texting while driving, it should not be a surprise it becomes a major focus of law enforcement.