ROCKVILLE, MD — Rich Leotta wore his late son’s Montgomery County Police badge around his neck as he announced his newest effort to combat drunken driving.
NoahOnPatrol.org will create a court-watch program designed to pressure Montgomery County judges to order vehicle ignition interlock devices in all cases of drunk driving.
Leotta said he’s been visiting Montgomery County courtrooms to monitor how cases of drunk driving are handled. “They’re going to see me in there. They might not like it, but guess what? They are going to get used to my face,” said Leotta.
“Our goal is going to be eliminating [drunken] driving in Montgomery County,” said Leotta. He’s kicking off an 18-month effort that will include public education and public safety campaigns. “We need the help of many — particularly our courts”, Leotta said.
Leotta was joined by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett, Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy and Maryland Delegate Ben Kramer as he made the announcement in the lobby of the county circuit courthouse in Rockville.
Leotta, with his wife, Marcie, successfully lobbied Annapolis lawmakers to pass “Noah’s Law,” named for his son who was killed by a drunk driver in December 2015. But Leotta says there’s a loophole in the law. It does not require judges to order ignition interlocks in cases where a driver is granted a probation before judgment, or PBJ.
With NoahOnPatrol, Leotta says actively monitoring judges — even calling them out by name when they don’t put drivers on ignition interlocks — could help achieve his ultimate goal: ending drunken driving altogether. Leotta said when asked how he succeeded in passing the legislation named for his son, he quotes his wife: “We shamed them.” And he says he’d apply the same strategy in the court watch program. “And that’s what it might take — to shame them.”
McCarthy said court-watch programs have been used in the county for years by activists who work on issues of domestic violence. “Let me tell you, court watch works!”
After the announcement, McCarthy said that while court watch programs are effective, they typically don’t mention judges by name in their reports, so as to avoid the risk of civil suits. Asked about that, Leotta said he’s willing to take the risk.
Leggett SAID he’s supporting the initiative to eliminate drunken driving. He mentioned the county’s own effort, known as Vision Zero, a campaign to stop traffic fatalities. For starters, Leggett said, “We want to cut by 35 percent the number of fatal collisions by November of 2019”
Manger said his department is pushing for stricter penalties for drunken driving, but said driver behavior also has to change: “We’re hopeful we can get voluntary compliance, so that people won’t have to get caught to realize that it’s not a good idea to drive drunk.”
Chuck Hurley, with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, told reporters, “In my lifetime, more than 1 million people have been killed by drunk drivers. But also in my lifetime, we can eliminate this primary threat to the American family.”
