Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Hamburg Police Officer Vindicated in DWI Case Against Lawyer

Hamburg Police Officer Vindicated in DWI Case Against Lawyer

For the past six months, Hamburg Police Officer Vince Pupo has heard the whispers; whispers that he may have tried to frame attorney Anne Adams on a trumped up DWI charge. 

Last September second, Pupo was on patrol when he got a call about a car weaving down Route Five.

He caught up with the car, saw a woman driving and at one point, he says the driver almost hit the guardrail. Pupo pulled the driver over. 

"It was a convertible, there was an odor of alcohol coming from the car with the top down when I approached her," Pupo remembered.

"The driver had glassy eyes and slurred speech."

Scott Brown: "When you put her through the sobriety tests, how did she do?"

Pupo: "She failed all of them."

Pupo arrested Anne Adams, who admitted she had had a few drinks downtown with Supreme Court Judge Joseph Makowski, but denied she was drunk.

When Adams was given a breathalyzer test, it showed her blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

So you can imagine Pupo's shock when in the days after the arrest, Adams, in an attempt to get her case dismissed, submitted a blood test showing that she had just a trace amount of alcohol in her system.

Meanwhile, Judge Makowski submitted a sworn statement saying he had been following Adams in his car, and that Adams' driving was perfectly normal.

That's when the whispers started about Vince Pupo and his arrest. 

"I was upset, these are things that we take to heart as police officers, my job is what I do for a living, I wouldn't jeopardize it for anybody," said Pupo.

Last Friday, Adams admitted that she'd had her blood drawn the day after her arrest, and Makowski recanted his sworn statement about Adams' driving. 

Officer Pupo was in court when Adams pled guilty to three charges, including the DWI. 

"I felt vindicated when she admitted to all of the stuff she did do. She thought she could beat the system by who she was, but at the end of the day the facts tell the truth."

Adams faces a sentence of up to two years in prison when she's sentenced in April.

As part of a deal with the District Attorney's office, Joseph Makowski resigned his position as a judge.

Both Adams and Makowski face the possible revocation, or suspension, of their licenses to practice law.



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