First DWI (NJ)
I’ll preface this by saying I’m incredibly new to this process.
After a dinner / drinks with a few industry friends, I was too intoxicated to drive. My closer friend offered to drive me home and I accepted. The other friend offered to follow in his car to be his return trip to the restaurant.
About 2 minutes into the drive, I came to a moment of clarity and didn’t want either of them driving after several drinks so I told them I would make the unfortunate call to leave my car and Uber.
I was feeling ill, dizzy, and impaired, so I moved into my driver seat (due to the rear passenger back seat being laid forward) so I could lay my seat back and close my eyes. My vehicle was off.
I woke up over an hour later to a flashlight and a loud tap on my window. I realized the uniform and went to roll down my window. It didn’t move due to the car being off.
I promptly turned my car on and rolled the window down. The officer then asked me what I was doing. I was honest with him and said I was too intoxicated to drive so I was resting before I found an alternative ride home. At this point I was in the deep shoulder of a road.
He asked me to exit the vehicle and performed a FST. I was dizzy, and honestly much less impaired than I had been prior, but still was having balance issues simply due to having fallen asleep in a confined seat and being suddenly awoken and asked to stand. I told him respectfully it wasn’t necessary since I was very aware of being inebriated.
I thought there would be no harm, I wasn’t driving. I knew I had no intention of driving, either.
He arrested me.
When I asked why, he said it was because I started my car to roll my window down.
I asked what I could have done differently. He said I should have opened my door.
All through my life I was led to believe you should never open the door of your vehicle on an officer unless instructed to. I took the tapping on the window as a universal request to roll it down.
How seriously is this case and can anyone share any insight to my situation?
I’m afraid this will ruin my life. Everything I read online mongers the idea that NJ is extremely aggressive with their DWI consequences.