Man Arrested for DWI After Sleeping in his Truck

On May 9, 2024 around 7:54 PM, Officers Anthony Hochstadter and Sheynna Vega with the Hoboken Police Department were dispatched to517 Madison Street on a report of a driver sleeping inside of a vehicle and a vehicle blocking a driveway. As they arrived on scene, the observed a 2009 Dodge Pickup Truck parked in front of a fire hydrant with the engine running. The driver, later identified as Jose Palta, was asleep behind the wheel and the doors were locked. Jose eventually awakened and unlocked the vehicle.

As he was speaking with the driver, he observed indicators of impairment and detected the odor of alcohol. Inside the vehicle, he noticed that there were open containers. Since he ignored Officer Hochstater’s orders to not search for anything inside his pants, he decided to forcibly remove him from the vehicle and pat him down for weapons. They ultimately did not find any weapons on his person.

Shortly afterwards, Officers Spano, DeJesus, and Rivera arrived on scene to assist. Officer Rivera was certified in field sobriety exercises, but she wanted another officer with a better command of Spanish to help translate. Officer Garcia-Marte arrived to assist in translating during the field sobriety exercises, but he ultimately refused to perform them. Based on their suspicion resulting from him falling asleep behind the wheel, the odor of alcohol, and the open containers of alcohol inside the vehicle, Jose was placed under arrest for driving while intoxicated. A search of his vehicle incident yielded multiple open containers, which were placed into evidence bags.

He was transported to the Hoboken Police Department for further processing. After he was processed, he was released to a sober adult at 10:32 PM pending her court appearance after he signed the Potential Liability Warning form on her behalf. He was issued the following summonses: Operating under the influence (39:4-50), unlicensed driver (39:3-10), and blocked fire hydrant (39:4-1381)

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