(LM: Welcome to New Jersey. If you’re kind, bilingual and helpful to police, you’ll still be arrested in Union County, but the charges might be dropped.) Charges dropped against Good SamaritanCharges are being dropped against Monica Montoya, the Good Samaritan whose case sparked controversy this summer when she was arrested after stopping to assist an injured pedestrian and then asked to translate for police at the accident scene in Roselle Park.
The 25-year-old Dunkin' Donuts shop clerk had paused to give the injured woman tissues after leaving her job early to catch a bus to pick up her 6-year-old daughter from school in Elizabeth, when police asked her assistance in translating the Spanish spoken by the accident victim. After helping police for about 10 minutes, Montoya has said she grew anxious about not being able to pick up her daughter on time.
The woman said she was knocked to the roadway by Police Officer Harold Breuninger and arrested as she walked toward a group of onlookers to borrow a cell phone to ask an acquaintance to pick up her daughter.
The Union County Prosecutor's Office informed Roselle Park Municipal Judge Jeffrey Angelo in a letter dated Friday that it is "moving to dismiss the criminal complaint" charging Montoya with obstructing the administration of law and resisting arrest.
However, the prosecutor's office did not find Montoya entirely blameless in the June 20 incident.
"Officer Breuninger charged Ms. Montoya with obstructing the administration of law because she refused to give him her name and address," the prosecutor's office stated in the letter drafted by Assistant Prosecutor Ann Rubin. "However, under these circumstances, Ms. Montoya's refusal to provide her name and address was not legally sufficient to establish the crime of obstructing."
(link:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/10/charges_are_being_dropped_agai.html)
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