Defendants in the New York and Westchester Criminal Courts who had children in their vehicles while arrested for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving Under the Influence (DUI) are being charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Our Westchester DWI Lawyers have aggressively fought these charges.
A recent line of cases in the New York Courts have held that merely having a child in a car when the operator has a blood alcohol level (BAC) above the legal limit (DUI) is not sufficient to establish endangering the welfare of a child.
Instead there must be actual, not theoretical or possible harm.
This is especially important because endangering the welfare of the child has serious collateral damage. For example it can trigger the involvement of social services and possibly a neglect proceeding.
Also if you are not a citizen, a conviction of endangering the welfare of a child can have negative consequences with immigration, possibly leading to deportation. It is important for lawyers to aggressively fight convictions of endangering the welfare of a child.
