Cumberland County Man Back In Jail Following DWI Arrest
By Elizabeth Hur
VINELAND, N.J. (CBS) - A Vineland man, repeatedly arrested for DWI, is back in jail Thursday night.
Eyewitness News was the first to report on the previous DWIs and on Thursday night, Eyewitness News was the first to break the details of Anderson Sotomayor's sixth DWI arrest.
According to police, shortly before 7pm, officers out on routine patrol along the 700 block of Chestnut Avenue spotted a driver without his seat belt on. Officers pulled him over and immediately saw a familiar face and police say the suspect reacted just as quickly.
"As officers were going behind him, he started discarding objects out of the car which we later determined were alcoholic beverages. He was taken out of the car and appeared to be intoxicated again," Lt. Matthew Finley explained.
So the 45-year-old Vineland man was arrested again for DWI, his sixth suspected DWI arrest since April.
Investigators say Sotomayor was arrested for DWI on April 9th. The subsequent arrests happened on April 11th, April 25th, May 12th and May 17th.
In two of the DWI arrests, authorities say Sotomayor struck police cruisers and in the April 25th arrest, police say officers saw him cross the yellow line into oncoming traffic on busy Delsea Drive, almost hitting a cruiser. Police say the officer issued him 11 citations, including allegedly having an open 40 ounce beer and not having insurance or registration.
According to motor vehicle records, Sotomayor has had his license suspended 23 times since 1985.
Sotomayor still maintained his driver's license and as the law stands now, police can only keep arresting, but have no power to revoke a license until a DWI suspect has their first court date.
So as it turns out, Sotomayor was sent to jail after his May 16th arrest because at the time, he allegedly told officers he was using Oxycodone without a prescription. It was on those drug-related offenses Sotomayor sat behind bars until this Monday when he finally posted bail and was released.
"We made contact with the superior court judge because he's out on bail right now on drug charges from one of the previous DWI arrests and the judge revoked his bail so he's currently in jail on a no bail warrant," Lt. Finley added.
So for now, Sotomayor is back in jail, again on his drug charges.
Police say he has yet to face a judge for his DWI charges because his lawyers managed to postpone his DWI cases last week. At last check, a new court date for those cases has not been set.
