Nassau police arrested more than two dozen people for drunken driving on New Years Eve, including a 30-year-old Wyandanch man who had a young girl in his sport utility vehicle.
Third Precinct officers pulled over a Nissan Pathfinder at the corner of Commonwealth and Jericho Turnpike in Bellerose Village for a traffic violation and determined that the driver, Raul Rodriguez, was drunk at 5:45 a.m. on Friday, police said. His girlfriend and her 9-year-old daughter were also in the truck, police said.
Rodriguez was one of 29 people arrested for driving while intoxicated in the county from 11 p.m. on Dec. 31 through 9 a.m. on Jan.1, police said. He was also the first that Nassau police charged with felony drunken driving under the new Leandra’s Law, which increases the penalty for driving drunk with a kid in the car.
New York State police made the first arrest under the new law in Nassau and Suffolk last week.
Suffolk police said they arrested 28 people for drunken driving between 4 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday.
Rodriguez will be arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Saturday.