A Garden City defense attorney announced a lawsuit against Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice Monday.

Attorney Thomas Liotti says people accused of drinking and driving are not getting equal justice under Rice. He calls Rice?s DWI crackdown arbitrary and unconstitutional. In addition, he says rigid new guidelines press poorer defendants into pleading guilty. Liotti is filing the suit on behalf of a client facing DWI charges.

Rice calls the lawsuit frivolous and says cracking down on drunk driving is what she was elected to do. She says DWIs in Nassau County will no longer be treated as the equivalent of a traffic infraction.