Queens State Senator Sabini Pleads to DWAI

State Senator John Sabini, of Queens, has pleaded guilty to Driving While Ability Impaired following an arrest for DWI in Albany last September.

sabini04.jpgThe Daily Politics ran this excerpt from Sabini’s statement, released yesterday:

"Today, I entered a plea of guilty to driving while impaired, a traffic violation, accepting full personal responsibility for the events that led to my arrest in Albany. As a condition of my court agreement, I have paid a fine of $300 (plus court costs) as well as attend educational classes.

I take the matter against me very seriously, and am extremely grateful to have this settled. I would like to offer a sincere apology to my constituents, the Albany Court, and the many loyal friends, colleagues and family members for any burdens this may have caused.

As a legislator for sixteen years who has always strived to make the right choices, I have learned from this incident and will continue working hard to maintain the confidence and integrity of my role in the State Senate. I have always been proud and honored to serve my constituents, the State of New York and the great borough of Queens, and on their behalf will continue to support and talk about the issues that matter the most to them."

Sabini initially entered a not guilty plea last October.

According to the state DMV, a DWAI is defined as driving with a Blood Alcohol Content of between .05 and .07. A first offense is classified as a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $300 to $500, up to 15 days in jail, and a 90-day license suspension.

  • What

    A BAC of .05 is negligible. Let’s be serious. Kind of ridiculous. I would rather have police officers pull over people driving in the Bus only lane than a person with a BAC of this level.

  • Jonathan

    BAC of 0.05% is five 12 oz. glasses of beer over five hours for a 180-lb person.

  • .05 is many things for the same 180 lb person. It’s also ten beers over ten hours, or just two beers in quick succession. Do we have reason to think that Sabini was drinking for five hours?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_alcohol_content

    The Reader’s Digest beer infographics don’t usually go into the dirty details, but BAC is pretty poorly predictive of consumption and impairment. (And that’s not even considering errors introduced in measurement.) But Sabini was originally charged with DWI, right? So he must have measured .08. Anyway, our politicians should be drinking more and driving less.

  • The .05 threshold is arbitrary, but it’s not practical to have different thresholds for different size people, or it could never be enforced. The real news here is that drunk driving is still a “folk crime” in the view of this elected official (until he got caught–then suddenly it was very serious). Despicable.

  • bob

    he was driving on the wrong side of a two way street, swirving and had slurred speach when he was pulled over.

  • bob

    he was driving on the wrong side of a two way street, swirving and had slurred speech when he was pulled over.

  • JH

    The guy was drunk
    Thats why he refused the breathlyzer!!!
    Great example for our City

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