A 44-year-old West Harrison man was arrested in Yorktown on Monday after police say they found a child younger than 17 riding in his vehicle while he was intoxicated. Francisco A. Alba now faces a felony charge under New York's Leandra's Law, along with several misdemeanor and traffic counts, following a stop that began with a report of a possibly impaired driver.
According to Daily Voice, officers were sent to the area of Crompond Road around 6:12 p.m. Monday to investigate the report. They located Alba's vehicle on Baldwin Road, where police said they witnessed him commit a traffic violation before stopping him. Two additional officers arrived to assist at the scene.
Police determined that Alba was intoxicated while the child was in the car, per the same account, and he was taken to Yorktown Police Headquarters for processing. A relative of the child was contacted and came to the scene to take custody of them, officers said.
Charges Include Felony and Misdemeanor Counts
Alba was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle, a felony under New York's Leandra's Law, the station's report notes. He also faces misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and endangering the welfare of a child, as well as a traffic infraction for failing to use a designated lane.
The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles describes Leandra's Law as having established a new Class E felony for driving under the influence while a child age 15 or younger is a passenger. Separately, New York's per se DWI standard, as laid out by the New York State Senate, sets the threshold at .08 percent or more alcohol by weight in a driver's blood as shown by chemical analysis.
Court Appearance and Release
Alba was released on his own recognizance to a responsible adult following his arrest, then appeared in Yorktown Justice Court on Tuesday at 6 p.m., according to the DailyVoice report. Yorktown police reported the arrest publicly on Wednesday, two days after the stop.
Cases involving DWI charges tied to a child passenger have surfaced elsewhere in the region in recent months. In July, Mid Hudson News reported that State Police arrested Artemio Gonzalez, 34, of Yonkers, after his car was reportedly observed weaving through traffic on Route 9 in Cortlandt with a two-year-old child inside; Gonzalez submitted to a chemical breath test that showed a blood alcohol content of 0.14 percent, according to that report. In a separate incident that same report described, troopers investigating a Jeep parked on the shoulder of I-684 in Goldens Bridge found that a one-year-old child had been in the vehicle at the time.
State Police have also logged other Leandra's Law arrests in the Hudson Valley region this year, including an August case in which troopers determined that three children, ages 5, 6 and 7, had been passengers in a vehicle driven by a man exhibiting signs of intoxication, per the New York State Police.
