State v. Zingis

Docket: A-66-21

Opinion Date: August 8, 2024

Judge: NORIEGA

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

In August 2018, Thomas Zingis was charged with careless driving and driving while under the influence (DWI). He had a prior DWI conviction from April 2012. In December 2018, the municipal court found Zingis guilty of DWI and sentenced him as a second offender, based on his 2012 conviction. Zingis argued that his first conviction should be disregarded because the State failed to prove it was not based on a Dennis-calibrated Alcotest, referencing the State v. Cassidy decision. The municipal court accepted the prosecutor's representation that Camden was not affected by Dennis's misconduct and sentenced Zingis as a second offender.

On appeal, the Law Division also found Zingis guilty and upheld the second-offender sentence. However, the Appellate Division affirmed the conviction but vacated the enhanced sentence, ruling that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zingis’s 2012 conviction was not based on an inadmissible Alcohol Influence Report (AIR). The case was remanded to a Special Adjudicator to determine which counties were affected by Dennis’s conduct and what notification was provided to affected defendants.

The New Jersey Supreme Court reviewed the case and adopted the Special Adjudicator’s findings with modifications. The Court held that in any case where the State seeks an enhanced sentence based on a prior DWI conviction during the period of Dennis’s misconduct, the State must provide discovery to the defendant, including data from Exhibit S-152 and the Dennis Calibration Repository. If the prior conviction involved a Dennis-calibrated Alcotest, the defendant must be given the opportunity to challenge the conviction through post-conviction relief (PCR). The Court also ordered that Exhibit S-152, redacted to exclude personal identifiers, be made publicly available. The judgment of the Appellate Division was affirmed, and the case was remanded to the municipal court for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.