Crime & Safety

After Six Convictions for DUI, Greenwich Man Again Charged with DUI

This 49-year-old man has plenty of experience with arrests on charges of driving while under the influence.


By David Gurliacci.

From 1985 to 2013, James Martin, 49, was convicted of driving while under the influence six different times, and shortly after 7:15 p.m. on Monday, June 9, he was arrested on that charge yet again.

This time on a residential street in Darien.

Darien police gave this account (an accusation not proven in court) of the incident resulting in the latest arrest for the Greenwich man:

Police received a call at about 7:15 p.m. from someone who saw a 2001 Chevrolet Blazer being driven in an erratic manner on Hollow Tree Ridge Road near Heights Road. 

Police spotted the car going south on Hollow Tree Ridge Road, which crossed a double yellow line, passing a vehicle, striking a curb and almost striking several roadside mailboxes.

The vehicle turned onto Linden Street, then south onto Gardner Street, where police stopped the sport-utility vehicle and spoke with the driver, James Martin of Putnam Park in Greenwich.

Police noticed that Martin's speech was slurred and, when he got out of the vehicle, he grabbed the door to keep from falling down.

He couldn't produce a valid driver license and the insurance card he produced had expired in 2012. Asked if he had been drinking, he initially said he had one drink. 

A few minutes later, he again was asked if he'd been drinking, and then he said he had two beers. He failed field sobriety tests.

Inside the vehicle, behind the console, police found a bottle of prosecco wine.

Martin's driver license was under suspension, police found out. And the vehicle's registration was suspended because it had no insurance. He was only allowed to drive his vehicle if it was equipped with an ignition-inhaler device.

Martin was charged with driving while under the influence after already having been convicted of the same crime, failure to drive on the right side of the road, driving a vehicle with a suspended driver license, illegally driving without a mandated ignition-inhaler device, driving an unregistered motor vehicle and driving an uninsured motor vehicle.

He was initially held on $2,500 bond and has appeared twice so far on this case in state Superior Court in Stamford, where his bond is now at $30,000. He is next scheduled to be in court on June 24.


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