State Sen. Lee Constantine is arrested on DUI charge

State Sen. Lee Constantine was arrested early Sunday on a DUI charge after a Maitland police officer tracked the senator's car drifting in and out of the traffic lane and smelled alcohol on his breath, according to a police report.

Constantine, 51, R-Altamonte Springs, refused to take a Breathalyzer test, the report said. He was released from the Orange County Jail about 10 a.m. Sunday after posting $500 bond.

By Sunday afternoon, Constantine's black Mercedes was parked outside his Altamonte Springs condominium. Knocks at his door and several phone calls to his home and cell phones went unanswered.

Mark NeJame, Constantine's attorney, said Constantine "absolutely was not under the influence to the extent that his normal faculties were impaired."

Refusing the breath test is a "pretty common thing," NeJame said. "People know they are inherently unreliable."

Constantine, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, earned plaudits in the recently completed legislative session for building a consensus on a plan to complete the Wekiva Parkway without destroying a sensitive springshed the road must cross.

In the arrest report, Maitland police Officer Monte Ertel wrote that after pulling Constantine over late Saturday, ". . . I immediately noticed that his eyes were both red and glassy."


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-locconstantine10051004may10,0,792377.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

This is the second time a connected Republican refused to take a breathalyzer and the first one got away with it. For everyone else in Florida, it's an instant license suspension. I'm tired of our stratified culture. Really, really getting very tired of it.

jail and take your blood. Forcibly if they have to. Also in this state you are automatically guilty if you refuse to breathalyze, you sign a document that says so before they issue or renew your license.

edit sp

"implied consent." In other words, when you sign that you want that precious driver's license, you agree to all the terms and conditions, including that you'll take that breathalyzer test or go to jail.

Kinda like the terms and conditions on DU???? ;-)

is a little line that says you are subject to immediate license suspension for failure or refusal to take a field sobriety test. there are billboards all over floridas highways that state the same line. the laws about this can't be made much clearer.

(This was also posted on the State section).

That paper can look for some harassment, no doubt, from the Florida Republican Party. Here's the great one they published:



as opposed to one he deliberately had taken:



He wasn't at his best in his mugshot, for sure. I think his next opponent should use it in his campaign.

"Florida law permits the motor vehicle department to suspend your privilege to drive if you refuse the breath test, or if you take the breath test and blow over the .08 legal limit. Additionally, your refusal to submit to a test upon the lawful request of a law enforcement officer is admissible in any criminal proceeding against you as evidence of your “consciousness of guilt.”


http://lemonidis.lawoffice.com/custom1/

the same kid glove treatment that Jeb Bush's daughter got when she was caught with cocaine. It just isn't fair. I think about all those one-timer, hard-working men & women who get caught and go through the process without complaining. They suffer the consequences, they do their act of contrition, and this guy's lawyer is already setting it up as if the process is too flawed to apply to someone as important as a Republican politician. Well, if it's too flawed for him, then it's too flawed for everyone.

wasn't the "treatment" a diversion... but if she violated it (like getting caught smuggling drugs into the facility in a shoe) she would have to face the full charges (did that happen?) Also wonder where the coverage is per the laws Jeb! was pushing to make non-incarceration related diversion programs (eg treatment) for first time offenders much HARDER (wasn't he pushing to require some jail/prison time for all?) compared to the treatment of Nicole... unless of course she finished treatment and THEN went back to face charges.... but we would have heard about that story, wouldn't we...

we can look forward to constantine authoring legislation to eliminate use of the 'inherently unreliable' breath tests.

...which is ruled with an iron fist by Prince Jeb, the Emperor in Waiting: I wouldn;t expect any semblance of what Free Americans used to call "justice".

Such concerns are not the Imperial Family's concerns.

the laws that get written. He should in fact be made an example of.

The police, the courts and MADD come down HARD on people who get DUIs. Why are they so quiet now?