Springsteen’s DWI charges dismissed
Prosecutors dismissed the two most serious criminal charges that rock icon Bruce Springsteen was facing — drunken driving and reckless driving — during a brief videoconference on Wednesday in federal court in New Jersey.
Springsteen, 71, pleaded guilty to the least serious charge, drinking alcohol in a closed area where it is barred. He was fined $540.
“Two small shots of tequila,” Springsteen said as his lawyer, Mitchell Ansell, walked him through his guilty plea.
“Mr. Springsteen, I need to ask you how long you need to pay the fine,” Judge Anthony R. Mautone, said.
“I think I can pay that immediately, your honor,” Springsteen answered.
In dismissing the charges, prosecutors noted that Springsteen’s blood alcohol level was .02%, well below New Jersey’s 0.08% legal limit.
“The defendant would be considered presumptively not impaired,” the assistant U.S. attorney, Adam Baker, said during a 22-minute hearing conducted over Zoom.
The National Park Service ranger who arrested Springsteen had said in an affidavit that the singersongwriter refused an initial breath test after he was stopped on his motorcycle on Nov. 14 near the Sandy Hook Lighthouse in New Jersey.
“That test is not required by law,” Baker said, “and he did submit to the legally required breath test when he was at the ranger station.”
Springsteen, one of the most celebrated popular musicians of his generation with 20 Grammy Awards, was arrested after the ranger witnessed him drink a shot of Patron tequila in a park along the northern Jersey Shore, Gateway National Recreation Area, a fact that Springsteen admitted during the hearing.
The officer wrote in a probable cause report that the musician smelled “strongly of alcohol” and was “visibly swaying back and forth.”
Before the federal government dismissed the charges, Springsteen, through his lawyer, pleaded not guilty to drunken driving and reckless driving.