PLEADED GUILTY TO VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER & DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE
After HMD was arrested for his involvement in a fatal car cash (and alleged to have been operating a motor vehicle “while under the influence of alcohol or drugs”) the Department of Motor Vehicles held a hearing and an administrative law judge determined that the guy’s license should be suspended for one year.
Thereafter, HMD pleaded guilty to two counts of “vehicular manslaughter in the second degree,” and “two counts of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” and was sentenced to five years of probation and wasn’t permitted to drive.
When his probation expired, HMD sought relicensure, and when that request was denied, commenced a special proceeding [CPLR Article 78] in the Westchester County Supreme Court. When the judge denied his request for relief, an appeal followed.
On its review, the Appellate Division, Second Department, reiterated that the discretion of the Department of Motor Vehicles was quite “broad,” and that its determination could not be modified in the absence of some “violation of lawful procedure, … error of law, or was arbitrary and capricious or an abuse of discretion.”
Since HMD had been convicted of vehicular manslaughter and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and the law expressly permitted an application’s denial in such an instance, the AD2 was of the view that there had been a “rational basis” to rebuff the guy’s request and left the underlying outcome undisturbed.
That’s enough to drive one crazy ….
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DECISION