NORWICH – Deliberating for a little over an hour Wednesday, a jury found an Oxford man not guilty of felony driving while intoxicated, but guilty of driving while ability impaired, a misdemeanor.
Norwich City Police arrested 29-year-old Thomas Toomer II on May 7 along Park St. after a patrol noticed his vehicle crossing the center divide line on Mitchell Street. They said they followed his vehicle for a short period of time.
Toomer was traveling with a passenger so intoxicated that officers testified they were unable to communicate with him or even get his name. Toomer admitted in a video recording at the Norwich Police Station that he was giving the man a ride home from the bar because his friend was too drunk to drive at around 1 a.m. on the night in question. Taking the stand in his own defense Wednesday, Toomer testified he didn’t have a single drink all day long.
Toomer was facing up to four years in state prison over the felony charges, but is now looking at a maximum of 180 days in local jail for his misdemeanor conviction.
Toomer told the court he had been pulled over earlier in the day by another law enforcement agency while traveling along State Highway 12 between Oxford and Norwich and was released without receiving any tickets prior to his DWI arrest in the city.
Norwich City Police Officer Timothy Annesi testified he was only able to perform one of the three standardized field sobriety tests before Toomer refused to cooperate and began demanding a lawyer.
Annesi was one of three officers called to the stand Tuesday, and testified that in his professional opinion, he believed Toomer was “highly intoxicated.” Two other officers also involved in the case, First Sergeant Scott Burlison and Officer Craig Berry, both testified that they also believed Toomer was intoxicated, citing his slurred speech, alcohol odor, blood-shot eyes and combative attitude toward police.
Jurors watched a lengthy video of police processing Toomer at the station following his arrest, during which time Toomer admitted in court that he lost his temper.
In the video, Toomer is seen cursing at officers at several points and then complimenting them at others. Chained to the floor for most of the video, Toomer is seen arguing and begging with officers to contact his attorney for more than 30 minutes. During that time, police are filing paper work, attempting to find his lawyer’s phone number and trying to explain his rights.
Toomer refused to submit to an alcohol breath test until he could contact his attorney. After making numerous attempts to reach the law office at around 2:30 a.m., police entered an automatic refusal into their paper work. “I’m not saying I’m refusing, I’m saying I need to talk to a lawyer,” Toomer is heard telling officers on the video.
Toomer’s private Defense Attorney Jeffrey Leibo called Annesi’s sobriety tests into question during his closing arguments to the jury.
“There is no video of those tests being performed, but there is video of what happened after those tests,” he told the jury, reminding them that it was the defense’s idea to submit the recording into evidence, not the prosecution’s.
“The cops aren’t just saying he was intoxicated, they testified he was ‘highly intoxicated.’ Now watch the video and tell me if that’s what you see. His speech is crystal clear, he’s forming full sentences and attempting to communicate intelligently, I think. Is he angry? Yes, and that’s understandable,” he said.
District Attorney Joseph McBride told a different story to the jury in his closing arguments, citing Toomer’s previous drinking and driving convictions. He started by recalling Toomer’s own words from the video at a point where he seems to plead with officers, saying, “Maybe I deserve to be here.”
“This defendant’s goal from the onset of this incident was to intentionally impede and delay police attempts to process him because he knows that if he had blown into that machine, we wouldn’t be here in court today – because the judge and the rest of us could see the results of that test and I have no doubt they’d show us he was indeed highly intoxicated,” McBride told the jury.
McBride pointed out that the three police officers testified that Toomer was intoxicated, drawing from their combined service of nearly five decades of police experience and training.
“It’s a case of common sense. These guys are just out there doing their job. Here’s what we know: police smelled alcoholic beverages, there is a passenger so intoxicated he can’t even give his name to police, the defendant was driving a car in the oncoming lane of traffic,” said McBride.
Following the verdict, County Court Judge W. Howard Sullivan remanded Toomer to the Chenango County Correctional Facility without bail at the objection of the defense. “After reviewing the report and seeing the video, I do have a concern about Mr. Toomer returning to court. He has demonstrated a complete lack of respect of authority,” Sullivan told Leibo as the two debated the issue.
“The jury got to see that I was definitely not intoxicated. They saw me angry, but they didn’t believe I was intoxicated and that’s what matters,” said Toomer as he left the courthouse.
Toomer will return to court in a few weeks for sentencing and the time already served will be considered.