JUDGE UPHOLDS POLICY OF SEIZING CARS FROM PEOPLE ARRESTED FOR DRUNKEN
DRIVING

A state judge on Wednesday upheld New York ity's new policy policy of
seizing the cars from people arrested on drunken driving charges, handing
the city its first court victory on a crackdown that has been criticized by
civil libertarians.

The ruling by Justice Michael D. Stallman of State Supreme Court in
Manhattan came in response to a class-action lawsuit brought by the New York
Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Pavel Grinberg, a Staten Island man whose
car was confiscated by the police on Feb. 21, the day the policy against
driving while intoxicated went into effect.

In deciding in the city's favor, Stallman said Grinberg "has not met his
burden of demonstrating that the city DWI forfeiture policy is
unconstitutional, contrary to law or arbitrary and capricious, either on its
face or as applied to him."

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and other city officials applauded the ruling on
Wednesday, saying that the judge had proved wrong all the critics who
publicly criticized the policy as ill-advised and illegal.

"I'd like to remind everyone that the New York Civil Liberties Union and
other advocates and activists do not determine the Constitution," the mayor
said. Noting that the initiative was being copied elsewhere, such as in Long
Island, he added, "We're going to save hundreds and maybe ultimately,
thousands of lives."

But vowing that "the challenges will continue," Norman Siegel, executive
director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said on Wednesday that his
organization planned to appeal the case to the New York State Court of
Appeals. If he loses there, he said, he may take the case as high as the
U.S. Supreme Court.

"We continue to maintain that the government should not be in the business
of seizing people's cars without their requisite legal authority and even if
authorized, it should not do so prior to trial and conviction," he said.
"Moreover, we continue to believe the Giuliani administration's DWI
initiative is unfair and excessive."

Legal experts said the judge's ruling was not surprising, noting that
forfeiture was a long-used response -- dating back to the Middle Ages -- in
cases where property is instrumental in the commission of a crime. Since
1984, federal law has allowed for the seizure and auction of property
suspected of being used in a crime, whether or not a suspect is arrested. A
New York state law allows the forfeiture of vehicles owned by drivers who
repeatedly drive while intoxicated.

The three-month-old forfeiture policy relies on a provision of the city
administrative code that allows for the seizure of burglary tools, gambling
equipment, firearms and other instruments used in committing a crime.
Although the code does not mention drunken driving, Stallman ruled that the
city's initiative "implements current law and codified procedure."

City officials said on Wednesday that the seizure policy had been having its
intended effect: deterring people from driving drunk.

According to Police Department figures, there were 336 drunken driving
accidents resulting in 5 deaths over the three months since the program was
carried out on Feb. 21, compared with 427 accidents and 7 deaths during the
same period in 1998, the police said. Since Feb. 21, the police have seized
405 cars.

The police said that since the program began, they arrested 1,100 people for
being either intoxicated or impaired while driving, compared with 1,319 such
arrests during the same period in 1997.

Forfeiture applies only to suspects who can be shown to be intoxicated,
meaning the driver's blood alcohol level is 0.10 percent or higher.