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It was the second DWI conviction for 34-year-old Carlos Miranda, who was admitted to drug court rather than be sent to prison. State law also requires that he have an alcohol-detection interlock device in his car for the next three years.
Miranda told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi in Hackensack yesterday that he had “about two cups” of straight rum before crashing his 2012 Infinity G37 near Englewood’s Greco Elementary School in March 2013. Police said his blood-alcohol content was twice the legal limit.
“Do you realize you could have killed the kid and yourself?” Miranda’s attorney, S. Emile Lisboa, asked him.
“That is definitely true,” Miranda answered. “I neglected my duty as a parent.”
Although endangering is a second-degree crime, DeAvila-Silebi admitted Miranda to drug court. If he fails to fulfill the strict requirements of the program, she said, he’ll go to prison for from three to five years.
“Your performance determines how long you are under probation supervision,” the judge told Miranda. “The full five years or from one to two years.”
DeAvila-Silebi said he could be eligible for what is known as Express Court, through which offenders check in at lunchtime and return to work if they test negative for alcohol.
A third DWI offense would trigger an automatic 180-day jail sentence.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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