A not-so-funny thing happened to John Dematteo on his way to traffic court to face a DWI summons: He got into an accident on the street in front of South Brunswick Municipal Court -- and cops say he was drunk again.
"He said he was nervous about court and brought a bottle of raspberry Absolut vodka in order to settle himself down," said Sgt. James Ryan of the South Brunswick Police Department.
Police said Dematteo, 48, who lives in South Brunswick and is unemployed, admitted to an officer that "he drank some vodka to calm his nerves."
In his report, Officer Anthony Pisano found "Dematteo's eyes glassy and bloodshot and smelled alcohol on his breath."
Dematteo was headed to court Tuesday to face charges resulting from a March 15th stop after he drove over some traffic cones that were used to close an intersection where power crews were repairing electric lines knocked out by a storm.
In Tuesday's incident, police said he tried to turn right into the Municipal Court parking lot from the center lane of the roadway running in front of the Municipal Complex.
Unfortunately for him, there was a station wagon in the right lane; but luckily no one was injured.
Local
That is when Officer Pisano came to investigate, and found the bottle of vodka.
Because he had to be taken to the hospital for an unrelated medical issue, Sgt. Ryan said Dematteo ended up missing his court appearance for the mid-March DWI summons.
Dematteo's record also shows he had a DWI arrest in 2006.
Follow Brian Thompson on Twitter @brian4NY
