Rochelle Park school board member charged with DUI

ROCHELLE PARK — Board of Education member Jorge A. Martinez, who is running for Township Committee in November, has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence.

Martinez was issued summonses for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, refusal to submit to breath testing, careless driving and obstructing passage of other vehicles, according to a police report.

When reached by phone, Martinez declined to comment.

Police responded to a call reporting a car stopped in the middle of Railroad Avenue on Oct. 7 just before 4 a.m.

Officers found the car stopped in the left-turn lane, despite a green traffic signal, and the driver’s head down, the police report said.

When officers pulled up behind the stopped car, the driver, later identified as Martinez, made a left turn onto Rochelle Avenue.

While speaking with Martinez inside and outside his vehicle, officers detected a “strong” odor of alcohol, reports said.

The police report says Martinez told officers he was coming from a friend’s house in Elmwood Park, but at first said “Elfwood Park.”

Asked by officers if he had fallen asleep, Martinez said he didn’t think so and denied having consumed alcoholic beverages when asked, according to the police report.

Officers observed that Martinez had a flushed face and bloodshot, watery eyes, records show. He was charged after field sobriety tests and refusal to take a breath alcohol test at police headquarters.

Martinez is running for a seat on the Township Committee as a Democrat in the Nov. 7 election.