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Noel Ramos, 27, pleaded guilty to DWI and will be entered into what’s known as a pre-trial intervention program, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said Friday.
Ramos will avoid jail time -- and a criminal record -- if he meets the requirement of the program over the next 12 months, Valdes said. These include having an ignition interlock installed on his vehicle, she said.
A Superior Court judge in Paterson could shorten that time by several months if it’s proven the four-year department veteran is strictly following the rules.
Clifton police found Ramos’s 2019 Dodge Challenger in the middle of Lexington Avenue -- outside, of all places, a liquor store – when they responded to the pre-dawn Feb. 13 accident, Valdes said.
The Dodge had struck an occupied vehicle, sending it crashing into a third car and injuring its driver, she said.
The victim was later treated at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Passaic before being released.
Ramos “had been operating his vehicle recklessly with a blood alcohol content above the legal limit at the time of the crash,” Valdes said.
He was arrested four weeks later and charged with assault by auto, reckless driving and DWI following an investigation by the prosecutor’s Vehicular Homicide Unit, and Clifton police, she said.
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