hey we're in my car today uh driving around got Kent vulmer the panal County Attorney with me uh Kent tell me a little about yourself so I am the County Attorney here in panal County um as a lot of people know our county is the size of the state of Connecticut we've got about half a million residents uh and I'm in charge of the felony prosecution for the entire County and then we also prosecute all misdemeanors that occur outside of our local municipalities right so all the the cases when I'm writing them into the Justice Court they're handled by your attorneys they come to me that's right we get a ton of questions um like in the comment Bank from FR of Frank about like hey what happened with this case or you know hey you arrested this guy for DUI or you arrested this guy for you know criminal speed or what happened to that case and you're you're the guy that has those answers I am at least I should be so um so what do we what do we have uh I know a couple St Patrick's days ago um we had a we had an episode uh I arrested a kid in Cass Grand when was the last time you smoked any weed um I don't smoke that's I don't know if that was the answer to the question I asked and I don't feel like it was truthful um I told him that his generation was doomed because I I believe that at a cellular level um and uh and you I I had no idea what happened to that case cuz it never it never went to trial um so I had no further contact with it but your prosecutors took care of that case afterwards that is correct um the young man came in uh ultimately he plad guilty to his offense which was driving Under the Influence with a drug metabolite an A3 violation uh he was sentenced he did uh 24 hours in jail uh he was given 9 days suspended his license was suspended and he had a hefty um about a $2,000 fine just there that doesn't include the breathalyzer and all the other things that that he now has to have in his vehicle and any legal fees but he had to pay an additional 2K just to the county for that violation okay so he just pretty much went in and said hey yeah I was high and let's let's take care of this I plead guilty and didn't which is why I never saw it because we he didn't he didn't challenge it in court come on Frank it's kind of hard I mean you were there you saw the video I mean it was quite evident okay and how long was that 30 seconds 30 seconds okay when I tell you to you're going to take your first step 1 2 3 you're going to go all the way to nine once you reach your ninth step once you plant your lead foot take a set of small steps like this and take your nine steps back one 2 3 just like that okay so that you see where you're walking keep your eyes down at your feet count your steps out loud so I can keep up with you just the way your arms are now just comfortably keep them down to your side and then once you take the first step don't stop until you you've gone down turn and come back yep that's it yep all right three steps exactly what I told you to do I'm Sor I'm just I'm that's okay that's okay then back said right three steps uh nope I'm sorry was there was there any was there any part of that that you didn't cuz I asked if if you understood think about all the bad possibilities right now okay well that's that's what happens when you do illegal things man you do illegal things well it's not illegal cuz it's it's it's um it's weed it's not illegal okay how old are you 19 how old can you be to to smoke marijuana without American marijuana card you're right right so so if you're going to if you're going to stand on the mountain of right and say hey man what I did was is legal then right now that's okay so yes he he took responsibility uh I think the court had a little bit of Mercy on him the court could have given him more time but I think ultimately he was held accountable uh he was given the tools to hopefully be successful and hopefully never to make that choice again and that's the idea with the with the first um the first offense DUI is to have some level of Education in there to change that behavior and hope that it doesn't happen again right it certainly is I I mean look you're on the roads every day you know this as well as I do almost every fatal accident that we see in our community there's some level of intoxication whether it's prescription pills recreational drugs alcohol but almost every single accident one of the two have something on board so obviously we want no drinking we want no driving impaired um but if people make a bad decision we want to kind of give them some education give them some immediate consequences and hopefully we'll never see them again what led you to be the County Attorney I had your what's your background lead you to here so I was in a private practice for about a decade um about a little over eight years ago I thought I could really make a difference in our community um you know if I if I'm being really candid about it I one time I represented a grandfather a father and a son uh all three of those suffered from substance abuse issues grandfather had spent the majority of his life in prison son had now spent the majority of his adult life in prison and now they had a 16 or 17-year-old son and Grandson who was going down that same path uh was in the criminal justice system uh and I was representing all three of them and I asked the court and I asked the state in particular what are we going to do different for this kid so he doesn't end up where his father and his grandfather um are and their answer was that's not really our problem and it didn't sit well with me uh that's a terrible answer it's the truth I mean if you look at what our statutory obligation is it's not to to show Mercy um it's to do justice it's to hold people accountable it's to to uh you know prosecute the laws um but we have a lot of autonomy a lot of power and a lot of authority where we can make our community a better and safer place and that's really been my mission it's to to separate dangerous people and make sure that we punish them we put them in prison to keep all of us safe and those that made dumb decisions those that at a low point in their life to see what we can do to restore them to give them a chance at actually being a productive member of our community so another case that we uh we get a lot of questions on as to um how it ended was um guy that I stopped because he was suspended while he was driving do you have a valid driver's license yeah hav tell me what I got put over for so because you don't have a valid driver's license how do you know I don't have a valid driver's license because you're the registered owner of this vehicle you have to get a supervis out here cuz you're not tell me what you cing for because you are the registered owner of this vehicle and you do not have a valid driver's license know what car by the first see we don't you didn't you didn't pull me over just for like just take my name yeah that's actually exactly what I did um and then didn't want to get out of his car and all that stuff if you don't get out of the car I'm going to remove you and when I remove you I'm going to put my hands on you in a manner that is much more aggressive than the conversation that we're having right now okay okay are you going to get out out come on get out out you come you guys so this what we're going to do forward hand behind his back there we go see just like that very simple very see how easy that was so right now like I said you're under arrest for driving on suspended license um so I ended up resting him um thought he was high at the time uh when I contacted him I think I found some drug paraphernalia in his car um and I know that I I ended up doing a blood draw and and sent those charges in for AGD why what whatever happened with that so uh you know this a lot of people when they get pulled over they are the smartest attorney and the most knowledgeable of the law of anybody in our community if you don't believe them just ask them cuz they'll tell you but once he had an actual attorney appointed to him and they sort of explained that no you did have the right to to lawfully stop him um you followed everything by the book it was a legitimate stop and he was under the influence he pleed uh he acknowledged that he was under the influence of methamphetamine he again PL pled to an A3 violation uh spent a day in jail um it was put on probation received a fine and had his license suspended more more more more suspended correct all right I should take turn and row then yep absolutely or you could just very simply stay out of panal County there were all sorts of comments about you you know that I didn't have the right to stop him and you know cuz I had run his license plate um and it has always been my understanding that none of the information contained within the license plate is private that that is is property more or less property of the state is that am I interpreting that right yes it's a privilege to be able to drive so the reality is you are exercising a privilege to drive on our roads and we have certain restrictions that you have to have a valid license plate you have to have a valid um driver's licensees as well so yes you are certainly within your rights as a law enforcement officer to run PL plates to look at different things things that catch your attention to see and then in this case obviously you ran the plate um you saw that the owner had a suspended license it looked like it was him so you initiated a stop all completely above board I haven't had to testify in all the cases that that I submit to your office cuz like you said some people just take pleas um but recently I did testify uh to a case in Central panal Justice Court and um and that ended up with a conviction after I gave testimony absolutely um this was the case and you remember it well I'm hoping your viewers do as well if you haven't I'd encourage you to go back and look at it this was the gentleman who took the uh the sticker off of his motorcycle um and he actually placed it on his pickup trucks a license plate to show that it was a valid license plate where did the sticker that's on your license plate come from from my motorcycle I have a Harley oh okay I'll be back can you take that uh turn your truck off for me please nice cuz I want you backing up over me when I remove your plate why are you removing my plate because it's it's a fictitious registration that tab does not belong on this plate well just take you can take the tab by love and not we'll see officer the plate is registered to the car that is correct but the tabs on the plate are fictitious and being it fictitious makes it a criminal offense no and the fact that I have my old register that's not petitious what are you talking about that tag is registered to this car that truck to this truck the the plate is the plate is that's what I'm saying so you can take the tag but not I mean the uh the the sticker but not the pl well this entire thing is evidence ultimately he did not take responsibility for his actions he exercised his constitutional right to go to trial we went to trial we called you as a witness uh and ultimately the court convicted uh the gentleman of driving with a fictitious plate so I think he was found responsible for both the criminal speed violation which was my my initial um reason for stop and then the knowingly displaying fictitious registrations I think both of those or misdemeanors and that's absolutely correct he he was convicted for going in excess of 20 over the posted speed limit in addition to the fictitious planate but yeah you testified there were absolutely uh uh no issues um you went through explained what you saw why you stopped him what you did the interaction you had with him ultimately the court weighed the evidence there and found Beyond a reasonable doubt that in fact the gentleman did in fact exceed the speed limit and um was driving with a fictitious plate