Head v. State
Decision Date | 30 January 2002 |
Docket Number | No. 27233.,27233. |
Citation | 43 P.3d 760,137 Idaho 1 |
Parties | In The Matter of The Driver's License Suspension of Brian E. Head. Brian E. HEAD, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent. |
Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Siebe Law Office, James E. Siebe, Moscow, for appellant.
Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Rebekah A. Cude, Special Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Rebekah A. Cude argued.
ON REVIEW
Brian Head appeals from the decision of the district court affirming the magistrate judge's order that Head's driving privileges shall be suspended for 180 days for his refusal to submit to an evidentiary test for the presence of alcohol in his blood. We affirm.
On November 1, 1997, at approximately 2:00 a.m., Deputy King was dispatched to a single-vehicle accident in rural Latah County. When he arrived, several other police cars were already present, as were emergency medical personnel. They were attending to Brian E. Head, the lone occupant of the vehicle. After Head was transported to a local hospital, Deputy King began assisting in the investigation of the accident. He later went to the hospital to interview Head.
Deputy King had information from other officers investigating the accident indicating that Head had been the driver of the vehicle. While at the hospital, Deputy King telephoned the registered owner of the vehicle, who was Head's brother. He learned that Head resided in the state of Washington, but had been visiting his brother in Deary and had borrowed the car that evening. Deputy King then interviewed Head in the emergency room.
Head told Deputy King that after attending a high school football game in Genesee, he drove his brother's car to a bar in Troy where he drank beer until he was too intoxicated to drive. He stated that upon walking outside to sleep in the car, he met a stranger who needed a ride to Kendrick. He allowed the stranger, whose name he did not know, to drive the car from the bar towards Kendrick, where Head intended to sleep until morning and then drive back to his brother's house in Deary. Head claimed that the stranger was driving when the accident occurred.
Deputy King could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage on Head's breath. Deputy King asked Head to submit to an evidentiary test for alcohol in his blood and advised him of the information required by Idaho Code § 18-8002(3). Head initially stated that he would submit to a blood test, but when the laboratory technician arrived to draw his blood he changed his mind and said that he wanted to have his attorney present. After Deputy King told him that he was not entitled to have his attorney present, Head stated that he would not submit to the blood test if he could not have his attorney present. Deputy King then arrested Head for driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Deputy King submitted an affidavit to the court stating that he had probable cause to believe that Head was driving while under the influence of alcohol, that he asked Head to submit to a test for alcohol concentration in his blood after advising Head of the consequences of refusing such test, and that Head refused to submit to the blood test. The affidavit of refusal initiated proceedings to suspend Head's driving privileges for 180 days due to his refusal to submit to the blood test.
Head timely requested a court hearing regarding his refusal to submit to the blood test. At the conclusion of the hearing, the magistrate judge found that Head had failed to prove a sufficient reason for refusing to submit to the blood test. The magistrate ordered that Head's driving privileges be suspended for 180 days. Head appealed to the district court, which affirmed the order of the magistrate judge. His further appeal was initially heard by the Court of Appeals. It held that because the advisory form that Deputy King read to Head included additional erroneous information regarding the consequences of failing the blood test, the advisory form did not meet the requirements of the statute. The Court of Appeals then reversed the district court's decision, which upheld the suspension ordered by the magistrate judge. We granted the State's petition for review.
In cases that come before this Court on a petition for review of a Court of Appeals decision, this Court gives serious consideration to the views of the Court of Appeals, but directly reviews the decision of the lower court. Humberger v. Humberger, 134 Idaho 39, 995 P.2d 809 (2000). Likewise, upon review of a case appealed from a district court's appellate review of a magistrate's decision, this Court makes an independent appellate review of the magistrate's decision, after giving due regard to the district court's ruling. State v. Clark, 135 Idaho 255, 16 P.3d 931 (2000). This Court will defer to the magistrate's findings of fact if supported by substantial and competent evidence, but will exercise free review of the magistrate's conclusions of law. Id.
The advisory form that Deputy King read to Head stated as follows:
Head concedes that paragraphs numbered 1 through 4 accurately advised him of the consequences of refusing the blood test as required by Idaho Code § 18-8002. He argues, however, that his driving privileges should be not suspended for refusing to submit to the blood test because the information contained in paragraph 5 inaccurately informed him of the consequences of failing the blood test, had he submitted to it.
In 1984 the Idaho legislature enacted Idaho Code § 18-8002 to provide for the suspension of the driving privileges of a motor vehicle operator who refused to submit, at the request of a peace officer, to an evidentiary test for the concentration of alcohol in his blood, urine, or breath. In 1993 the legislature enacted Idaho Code § 18-8002A to provide for the administrative suspension of the driving privileges of a motor vehicle operator who submitted to an evidentiary test if it showed an alcohol concentration in excess of that permitted by law.1 The information contained in paragraph 5 was intended to comply with Idaho Code § 18-8002A. At the time Head was asked to submit to the evidentiary test, however, Idaho Code § 18-8002A was not being enforced.
In 1995 the legislature suspended the enforcement of the statute because of concerns that the double jeopardy clauses of the federal and state constitutions would preclude a later prosecution for driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs if the defendant's driving privileges had previously been administratively suspended under Idaho Code § 18-8002A. Act approved March 17, 1995, ch. 190, 1995 Idaho Sess. Laws...
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