With seven alcohol-related driving arrests – together with three in Watervliet since Might 3 – Brandon L. McKinley is thought to town’s police.
And town’s police chief needs McKinley to be simply as recognized to the general public.
In a information launch final week, Watervliet Police Chief Joseph Centanni detailed the 41-year-old McKinley’s sordid authorized historical past and included his mugshot in saying a “neighborhood notification” that additionally served as a swipe on the modifications in New York’s bail legal guidelines.
On the outset, the discharge said: “The aim of this information launch is to encourage the neighborhood to make use of warning in the event that they observe Brandon L. McKinley of Watervliet, NY working a motorcar. This info relies on a abstract of McKinley’s in depth arrest document which incorporates seven (driving whereas intoxicated arrests) since 2008.”
The discharge defined that McKinley is charged for all three arrests with felony driving whereas intoxicated, which carries as much as seven years in jail; aggravated unlicensed operation, a felony that carries as much as 4 years in jail; circumventing an interlock gadget, a misdemeanor carrying to a yr in jail; ingesting alcohol in a motorcar, a ticket, and different violations.
Centanni’s frustration with the repeat offender was clear.
“This offender is a serial intoxicated driver,” mentioned Centanni, a retired 25-year Troy police veteran who turned Watervliet police chief in April 2021.
“The hazard that he and each impaired operator pose to our roadways will not be in dispute,” Centanni said. “McKinley’s actions point out an apparent want for help, which has sadly gone unanswered. The only cause this defendant continues to position our neighborhood in danger is as a result of he can’t be remanded as a result of an absurd provision in New York’s bail reform legislation. Though our officers are upset, we stay dedicated to eradicating harmful criminals from our streets.”
Joseph Ahearn, the lawyer for McKinley, informed Regulation Beat: “The chief’s assertion clearly demonstrates his frustration with the present state of the bail legal guidelines in New York. Mr. McKinley enjoys the presumption of innocence in these issues.”
Peter Gerstenzang, an Albany-based DWI protection lawyer and former prosecutor who is taken into account a nationwide knowledgeable on the authorized points surrounding drunken driving and who has skilled cops and prosecutors on the cost, informed Regulation Beat he has by no means seen a information launch earlier than just like the one issued by Centanni. He mentioned he seen the information launch as extra the product of a annoyed police chief than a type of public shaming, resembling in municipalities the place mug pictures of DWI defendants have been publicly posted.
“It is akin to, years in the past, we had a choose ordering individuals to have a license plate point out that they have been convicted of DWI and the courtroom struck it down as an unauthorized punishment,” Gerstenzang mentioned.
Underneath state bail legislation modifications that went into impact on Jan. 1, 2020 and which have been later amended, judges now can’t detain or set bail for defendants charged with many misdemeanor and felony offenses outdoors of “qualifying offenses,” resembling homicide, rape, instances that leading to demise and a choose variety of different crimes.
Usually, defendants are given desk look tickets. The change in legislation has been overwhelmingly unpopular with police and prosecutors across the state. Centanni isn’t any exception.
In New York, bail is ready to make sure a defendant’s return to courtroom. In contrast to instances in federal courts, a defendant’s potential hazard to the neighborhood if launched will not be an element judges are supposed to contemplate when setting it.
“The frustration arises out of the assumption that bail is not only to make sure someone’s return nevertheless it’s additionally punishment and a deterrent and when bail is not set, individuals suppose somebody’s getting off or one thing,” Gerstenzang mentioned. “It is an actual disconnect between what our structure requires and what individuals imagine.”
On Might 3, Watervliet police responding to a disturbance arrested McKinley at a Stewart’s store at Second Avenue and nineteenth Avenue and charged with driving inebriated at about 2:20 p.m. McKinley was arraigned, held on the Albany County jail for just a few days and launched just a few days later.
Six weeks afterward June 19, Watervliet police stopped McKinley for visitors violations and charged him with driving inebriated and possessing crack cocaine about 10:20 p.m.
On July 7, Watervliet police stopped McKinley’s automotive for visitors violations and charged him with, as soon as once more, driving inebriated 12:15 p.m. In all three instances, McKinley didn’t have an ignition interlock gadget on the automotive, police mentioned.
The information launch contained McKinley’s face, however no description of a automotive he may be driving.
Centanni informed WNYT – Channel 13 that his police division was not wanting to attract a vigilante response or to provide McKinley a tough time, however to stop a tragedy.
Gerstenzang, whereas a DWI lawyer, mentioned he had a level of sympathy for Centanni because of the chief’s incapability to cease a driver who regularly will get arrested.
“He sees this man as a menace and might’t do something about it and he is doing this out of desperation,” he mentioned. “This can be a very uncommon circumstance the place the man is undeterred and retains on ingesting and driving no matter pending instances.”
McKinley, throughout an look earlier than Albany County Choose William Little on Wednesday, was despatched to the county jail.
