§ 66-5-39 — Driving while license suspended; penalties

A. A person who drives a motor vehicle on any public highway of this state at a time when the person's privilege to do so is suspended and who knows or should have known that the person's license was suspended is guilty of a misdemeanor and may be punished pursuant to Subsection B of Section 66-8-7 NMSA 1978 or for no more than ninety days of participation in a certified alternative sentencing program. When a person pays any or all of the cost of participating in a certified alternative sentencing program, the court may apply that payment as a deduction to any fine imposed by the court. Any municipal ordinance prohibiting driving with a suspended license shall provide penalties no less stringent than provided in this section. B. In addition to any other penalties imposed pursuant to the provisions of this section, when a person is convicted pursuant to the provisions of this section or a municipal ordinance that prohibits driving on a suspended license, the motor vehicle the person was driving may be immobilized by an immobilization device for thirty days, unless immobilization of the motor vehicle poses an imminent danger to the health, safety or employment of the convicted person's immediate family or the family of the owner of the motor vehicle. The convicted person shall bear the cost of immobilizing the motor vehicle.

Legislative History

1953 Comp., § 64-5-39, enacted by Laws 1978, ch. 35, § 261; 1985, ch. 186, §