Cops: Disabled interlock in DWI arrest

A Bay Shore man with a disabled interlock device in his car was charged with drunken driving after speeding and swerving on Elmont Road Sunday morning, Nassau police said.

Hyggens Virgile, 52, faces charges including aggravated driving while intoxicated and operating a vehicle without a court-ordered interlock device. He was to be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Hempstead.

A Fifth Precinct officer on routine patrol saw Virgile's 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse at 5:15 a.m. traveling south erratically down Elmont Road, police said. The driver was speeding, swerving across lanes and not using a turn signal, police said.

After stopping the Eclipse at Stuart Avenue and Fifth Street, the officer noticed that the interlock device - placed in the vehicle as the result of a prior drunk driving conviction - had been disabled, police said.

Ignition interlock devices, which analyze breath samples for blood-alcohol content before allowing a car to start, are typically installed by court order.

Steven Epstein, a Hempstead DWI attorney, said it is not always clear why or how an interlock device could be disabled.

"Like any other device that's in a car, there are going to be problems associated with the hardware and the software," he said.

But he added: "It does work to deter drunk driving. . . . The message is being sent loud and clearly, if you get arrested and convicted of a DWI, it's a pretty harsh penalty to have to drive with one of these things."

Some drunken drivers, however, have shown great ingenuity in bypassing ignition interlocks. In 2009, a Wisconsin man was sentenced to three years in prison after he was convicted of a sixth DWI offense. He had used an air compressor and a balloon to blow air into the court-ordered interlock and start his van, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Tampering with a court-ordered interlock device is a separate criminal offense with which Virgile was not charged. Nassau police said they could provide no additional details Sunday.

A woman who answered the door at Virgile's home Sunday said he was not home and could not be contacted. She declined to identify herself.