Anderson Sotomayor charged with sixth DWI days after his release from jail

The same day 45-year-old Anderson Sotomayor failed to appear in court for a status hearing on a drug charge stemming from his last DWI arrest on May 16, the Vineland, N.J. man was again arrested for driving while intoxicated, police said.

Police said Sotomayor was taken into custody around 7 p.m. Thursday
and refused to take a breathalyzer test. He is being held at Cumberland County Jail on a no-bail warrant that was issued when he missed his court appearance earlier that day.

The incident was Sotomayor’s sixth DWI arrest in the past three months and he spent nearly half of that time in jail. He was locked up on charges stemming from his fifth DWI arrest from May 16 until Monday, when he was able to post bail. His sixth DWI arrest came only three days after his release.

No stranger to Vineland police, Sotormayor was arrested for DWI on April 9, April 11, April 25 and May 12. He also received traffic violations for an April 2 incident in which police said he hit a school bus and fled the accident scene.

Sotormayor was allegedly involved in accidents preceding at least three of the DWI arrests. Police said he struck a police car on April 9, slammed into a utility pole on April 11 and drove the wrong way down a one-way street, over a curb and onto private property on May 12. Following each arrest, he was issued a summons with a future court date, then released to family members.

Under New Jersey law, judges can’t hold suspects charged with DWI on bail because the offense is considered a traffic violation, not a crime.

But when Sotomayor was arrested for a fifth time May 16, he allegedly admitted to taking narcotic painkiller oxycodone, for which police said he did not have a prescription. That led to a more serious charge, allowing a judge to jail him, setting bail at $10,000 an amount that was doubled the next day.