NEW SCOTLAND — Christopher Dimmitt, who was tased by Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Philip Milano on June 21 during a traffic stop, appeared in New Scotland Town Court Tuesday for a Pringle hearing. At the close of the hearing, he was granted permission to drive to and from his work.

Dimmitt, who was heading home at almost 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning pulled into his driveway and was greeted, when he got out of the car, by Milano, who suspected Dimmitt of speeding and failing to use a turn signal. Milano pointed a taser at Dimmitt and ordered him and two male passengers back into their car numerous times, telling Dimmitt the reason for the stop almost three minutes into the incident. He eventually tased Dimmitt just after a backup officer arrived on scene.

Dimmitt was charged with obstructing government administration, driving while intoxicated, driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent, and resisting arrest, speeding, and illegal signaling.

Under New York State law, a defendant who is charged with driving while intoxicated and who was found, in a breathalyzer exam, to have a blood alcohol content of .08 or more, is subject to prompt suspension of his or her driver’s license.

A defendant may request a Pringle hearing to offer evidence arguing that either the charging paperwork or the DWI charge itself is invalid. While it is rare to win a Pringle hearing, defendants can sometimes, at the end of the hearing, gain a “hardship exemption” from the prompt suspension rule, if, for instance, they can show that they have no other reasonable means of transportation to and from work.

Dimmitt received a hardship exemption for 40 days, through Sept. 6, which will allow him to do limited driving, to and from his job as a construction worker in Troy, Monday through Saturday.

At the start of the hearing, Dimmitt’s attorney, Thomas O’Hern of Albany, asked Judge David J. Wukitsch to consider the video of the arrest; he said that it showed the extent of the excessive force that was used by Milano: tasing Dimmitt immediately after his backup had arrived and without allowing him time to respond to his warning; kicking Dimmitt and also punching him in the back of the head as he was taking him into custody; and continuing to question Dimmitt despite his repeated requests, shown on video, to speak to a lawyer.

O’Hern also suggested that there were problems with the arrest for driving while intoxicated. First of all, he said, the arrest documents note the time of the arrest for DWI to have been 1:54 a.m., when in fact Dimmitt was initially arrested on charges of resisting arrest and obstructing government administration at that time, and not DWI. A breathalyzer test was not done until about an hour after the first arrest.

O’Hern argued that the initial arrests were unlawful. And, he said, the law states that police cannot arrest someone for one thing and later find evidence of driving while intoxicated and gain an additional arrest for that.

Judge Wukitsch agreed with Assistant District Attorney David Szalda, who was prosecuting the case, that these issues were outside the purview of a Pringle hearing. Wukitsch added that the issues might very well have bearing further down the road.

The next step for Dimmitt and O’Hern will be to file a motion to dismiss the charges, which would be heard in the New Scotland Town Court after mid-September.