SOUTHPORT — A Southport elected official may not be charged in a driving while impaired case as a judge accepted a motion to dismiss the case on Monday, May 11.
Southport Alderman Robert Carroll’s attorney has filed the motion due to issues with his client’s arrest and administration of rights. According to the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts, roughly a fourth of DWI cases are disposed annually in the state, usually because of legal flaws in the case. That is what Carroll’s attorney, Dustin Sullivan, has filed on his behalf.
Sullivan’s motion explains his client’s rights were not read and the officer attempted to limit the alderman’s constitutional liberties when it came to Carroll’s phone calls to witnesses and attorneys.
In December 2025, Carroll was arrested in Boiling Spring Lakes for driving while impaired, driving on the left side of the road against oncoming traffic and speeding. His blood alcohol level tracked 0.21, more than twice the state’s maximum legal alcohol level of 0.08. Officer Bartlomiej Wanczyk detected a “moderate odor of alcohol” coming from the car upon pulling over Carroll on N.C. 133.
The incident took place around 10 p.m. on Dec. 13 and according to former reports, Carroll failed the field sobriety test. While a breathalyzer was not completed, a blood test was conducted past midnight on Dec. 14. Both the officer and Carroll had to go the hospital to be examined before making it to the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office because a deer struck the police vehicle, leading to a delay in filing the arresting documents.
On May 8, Sullivan filed a motion to dismiss the case based on exchanges Carroll and the officer had at the jail. The motion details how the two volleyed back and forth over the amount of people Carroll was permitted to call. He indicated Carroll couldn’t call “20 people” but rather an attorney for advice and a witness to watch the testing.
North Carolina law does not have a limit to how many phone calls someone who is arrested may make, and instead suggests arrested individuals must have a reasonable amount of opportunities to contact counsel and loved ones.
According to court documents, Carroll asks: “I’d like to see where there is a limit on the number of people.”
“Wanczyk picks up the Implied Rights Consent Form and says: ‘Right here it says an attorney. I can stop you at one, but I’m giving you an extra one if you’d like to reach out to him,’” Sullivan wrote.
In the motion, Sullivan cited the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth amendments and section 18 of article one of the North Carolina Constitution. The Fifth Amendment gives a defendant the right to due process of law, the Sixth defines right to counsel, and the Fourteenth ensures rights will be applied to the states. Section 18 requires the administration of rights not be denied, delayed and without favor.
The order still has to be signed by a judge; court documents indicate a review hearing is scheduled for June 9.
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