DWI arrests in Nassau County, on the Southern State, Northern State, Meadowbrook and Wantagh parkways, the Long Island Expressway, Sunrise Highway, Hempstead Turnpike and every local road in between, are prosecuted by the Nassau County District Attorney's office. Jonathan Kaye is a Nassau County DWI lawyer and former Assistant District Attorney whose office in Bayside sits a few miles from the Nassau line. He has defended Long Island drivers for over 30 years, he handles every case personally, and a misdemeanor DWI is a flat $1,500 legal fee.
Nassau is a different place to get a DWI than New York City. Arrests are far more common for its size, the county can seize your car, and the case runs through Hempstead and Mineola under a District Attorney's office with a dedicated Vehicular Crimes Bureau.
Nassau County DWI arrests by the numbers
Police in Nassau County made 1,366 DWI arrests in 2025, according to state criminal justice data. That is less than half the 3,389 recorded in 2008, and about the same as 2020, when arrests fell across the state. About 11% of Nassau's 2025 DWI arrests, 148 of them, were charged as felonies.
DWI arrests in Nassau County, 2006 to 2025
Felony and misdemeanor DWI arrests by all police agencies, by year.
View the numbers
| Year | DWI arrests |
|---|---|
| 2006 | 3,205 |
| 2007 | 3,225 |
| 2008 | 3,389 |
| 2009 | 3,045 |
| 2010 | 2,946 |
| 2011 | 2,464 |
| 2012 | 2,365 |
| 2013 | 2,173 |
| 2014 | 2,366 |
| 2015 | 2,386 |
| 2016 | 2,298 |
| 2017 | 2,157 |
| 2018 | 2,116 |
| 2019 | 2,033 |
| 2020 | 1,398 |
| 2021 | 1,310 |
| 2022 | 1,370 |
| 2023 | 1,430 |
| 2024 | 1,395 |
| 2025 | 1,366 |
Source: New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, Adult Arrests 18 and Older by County. Felony and misdemeanor DWI arrests by all police agencies in the county, counted by the most serious charge.
For its population, though, Nassau has about 98 DWI arrests per 100,000 residents, roughly twice the rate in Queens next door. Only Suffolk is higher in the region:
| County | DWI arrests, 2025 | Per 100,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| Suffolk | 2,838 | 186 |
| Nassau | 1,366 | 98 |
| Staten Island | 278 | 56 |
| Queens | 1,121 | 47 |
| Bronx | 620 | 42 |
| Brooklyn | 1,026 | 37 |
| Manhattan | 341 | 20 |
DCJS data counts arrests by all police agencies in each county. Rates use 2020 Census population and are rounded. The five boroughs are listed by their borough names.
Nassau County can take your car
Nassau County can seize the vehicle after a DWI arrest and pursue civil forfeiture under the county's administrative code. It is a separate case from the criminal charge, with its own deadlines:
- The car is towed and held at a county impound lot after the arrest.
- A retention hearing is scheduled, usually within a few weeks, where a judge decides whether the county can keep the car while the criminal case is pending.
- A forfeiture action may follow. Many cases settle, and owners who were not driving may have defenses.
If your car was taken, bring every piece of paper you were given to your first meeting with a Nassau County DWI attorney. The retention hearing comes quickly, and what happens in the criminal case affects the forfeiture case.
How a Nassau DWI case moves
Most Nassau DWI arrests are made by the Nassau County Police Department, with the State Police on the parkways and village police departments in their own areas. Wherever the arrest happened in the county, the case goes to the same place:
| Stage | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Arraignment | First District Court, 99 Main St, Hempstead | Charges read, release decided. With a test of .08 or higher, the license is usually suspended while the case is pending. This is when to ask for a hardship hearing. |
| Misdemeanor case | First District Court, Hempstead | Discovery under CPL 245, motions and hearings, then a dismissal, a reduction, a plea or a trial. |
| Felony case | Nassau County Court, Mineola | A grand jury indictment, then County Court. Fatal and serious-injury crashes are handled by the DA's Vehicular Crimes Bureau. |
| Refusal | DMV hearing | A separate hearing. If the refusal is upheld, a one-year revocation and a $500 civil penalty. |
See what happens after a first DWI, how a DWI gets reduced to DWAI, and refusal and the DMV hearing.
Where Nassau DWI arrests happen
Much of Nassau's impaired-driving enforcement is on the parkways, the Southern State, the Northern State, the Meadowbrook and the Wantagh, where State Troopers patrol, and on the Long Island Expressway. On local roads, stops cluster on Sunrise Highway, Hempstead Turnpike, Jericho Turnpike, Merrick Road and Long Beach Road, and near nightlife in Long Beach, along the Nautical Mile in Freeport, and in Rockville Centre. Nassau police run checkpoints and extra patrols on holiday weekends; see one holiday stretch that produced 25 DWI charges.
Parkway stops raise their own defense questions: what the trooper or officer actually saw at highway speed, and whether roadside tests on a narrow shoulder at night were given and scored correctly. See how field sobriety tests are challenged.
Drugged driving in Nassau
Two of the four recent Nassau cases below involve drugs, one with no alcohol at all. New York charges drugged driving as driving while ability impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor, and there is no legal limit: prosecutors must prove that a drug on the state's controlled substance list actually impaired the driving. A prescription is not a defense if the drug impaired you. For a Long Island drunk driving lawyer, these cases usually turn on a blood test, a drug recognition evaluation, and expert testimony, and each can be challenged. See DWAI and DWAI-drugs.
What a Nassau County DWI attorney costs
Jonathan's fee for a misdemeanor DWI in Nassau County is a flat $1,500, arraignment to resolution, in writing before any work begins. No hourly billing, no retainer to replenish, and no hand-off to an associate. Felony cases, trials, DMV refusal hearings and vehicle-seizure proceedings are quoted individually. See exactly what the flat fee covers.
Plan your ride home in Nassau
Nobody plans to get a DWI. Almost every DWI arrest starts with someone who felt fine to drive, and alcohol affects judgment before anything else. In Nassau, where nearly everyone drives, the plan has to be made before the first drink.
- Know the last train. The LIRR runs late, but overnight trains are far apart on most branches, and a station can be a long way from home.
- Leave the car at home or pick a designated driver. If the car is not there, the decision is already made.
- Remember the morning after. If you were drinking late, you may still be over the limit on the drive to work.
- Do not sleep it off behind the wheel. In New York, sitting in the driver's seat with the engine running can be enough to be charged, even when parked.
If alcohol is part of the story: local help in Nassau
A DWI arrest does not mean someone has a drinking problem. But if you or someone close to you has been worried about drinking, this is a good moment to look into it, and taking that step on your own can also be something your lawyer presents on your behalf.
Nassau County DWI cases in the news
These are real, public Nassau cases, written up in full with the charges and what they mean under New York law. They show how a DWI escalates when a crash causes injury or death, not what will happen in any other case.
Driver indicted after crossing the median and killing a husband and wife
Prosecutors say she was going 81 mph with a .15 BAC when she sideswiped a car, went over the center guardrail near exit 17 in Malverne and hit a Toyota head-on. The indictment includes aggravated vehicular homicide. The case is pending.
Read the full case →Guilty plea to manslaughter and DWI in a fatal hit-and-run on Lakeville Road
A driver who had been drinking at a Freeport bar hit and killed a 61-year-old woman walking to a bus stop, left, and returned 15 minutes later. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, leaving the scene and DWI, and is expected to receive 4 to 12 years.
Read the full case →Driver indicted after a 78-year-old is killed in a Long Beach Road crosswalk
Prosecutors say the driver turned right against a red light onto Long Beach Road at 4:40 p.m. and hit a woman in the crosswalk, who died a month later. His blood allegedly showed a .15 BAC plus cocaine and marijuana. The case is pending.
Read the full case →Drugged-driving indictment after a crossing guard is killed on Sunrise Highway
Prosecutors say the driver fell asleep at a red light at 8 a.m., woke to honking, and drove onto the sidewalk at Merrick Avenue, striking a 70-year-old Nassau police crossing guard. Toxicology allegedly showed sedatives. The case is pending.
Read the full case →From Nassau County District Attorney releases and news reports. A charge is an accusation, not proof of guilt. Every person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Also see: a Leandra's Law felony with a 6-year-old in the car, and more on our DWI cases in the news page.
Nassau County DWI questions, answered
Where is a Nassau County DWI case heard?
Misdemeanor DWI cases are arraigned and heard in Nassau County District Court, First District, at 99 Main Street in Hempstead. Felony DWI cases are presented to a grand jury and heard in Nassau County Court in Mineola.
Can Nassau County take my car after a DWI arrest?
It can. Nassau County can seize a vehicle after a DWI arrest and ask a court to keep it while the criminal case is pending, and then to forfeit it. There is a retention hearing, usually within a few weeks, and the forfeiture case is separate from the criminal case. Owners who were not driving, and drivers whose criminal case ends well, may have defenses. Bring the seizure paperwork to your first meeting with a lawyer.
I live in Queens but was arrested in Nassau. Where do I go to court?
The case stays in Nassau County, in Hempstead, where the arrest happened. Jonathan's office on Bell Boulevard in Bayside is a few miles from the Nassau line, so he handles Queens and Nassau cases side by side.
I was arrested by State Police on a parkway. Is that different?
The court and the prosecutor are the same. New York State Police patrol the Southern State, Northern State and other parkways, and their arrests in Nassau are prosecuted by the Nassau County District Attorney in the same courts as Nassau police arrests.
Can a Nassau DWI be reduced to DWAI?
Sometimes. A reduction from DWI, a misdemeanor, to DWAI, a traffic infraction, depends on the BAC, whether there was a crash, your record, and the strength of the evidence. Reductions are not automatic, which is why the evidence review matters.
How much does a Nassau County DWI lawyer cost?
Jonathan Kaye charges a flat $1,500 legal fee for a misdemeanor DWI in Nassau County, arraignment to resolution, agreed in writing up front. Court fines, surcharges, DMV fees, program costs and any vehicle-seizure proceeding are separate.
Arrested near Nassau?
Jonathan defends DWI cases across Long Island and all five boroughs, including cases that start on the Cross Island or the Belt and end in a Queens court.