State Of Iowa v. Breuer
| Decision Date | 11 August 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 0-423,No. 09-1170,0-423,09-1170 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA,Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LEE ALLEN BREUER,Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Iowa |
Lee Allen Breuer, Grinnell, appellant pro se.
Richard E.H. Phelps, II, Mingo, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Bridget A. Chambers, Assistant Attorney General, Steve Johnson, County Attorney, and Michael K. Jacobsen, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Jasper County, Darrell Goodhue, Judge.
Lee Allen Breuer was granted discretionary review of the denial of his motion to suppress. AFFIRMED.
Considered by Vogel, P.J., and Potterfield and Danilson, JJ. Tabor, J., takes no part.
Lee Allen Breuer was granted discretionary review of the denial of his motion to suppress. Because a warrant for a blood sample issued upon a finding of probable cause, the defendant's constitutional rights were not violated by the withdrawal of blood before the warrant arrived at the hospital. We affirm.
Lee Breuer was charged by trial information with homicide by vehicle, in violation of Iowa Code section 707.6A(1)(a) (2007). He moved to suppress the results of a blood alcohol test, contending the blood was withdrawn without his consent and prior to the arrival of the warrant authorizing the test. He argued the blood withdrawal violated his state and federal constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizure.
At the suppression hearing, Jasper County Deputy Sheriff Aaron Groves testified he was on duty on November 9, 2008, and was dispatched east of Newton on Highway 6 where, at approximately 1:24 a.m., Deputy Sheriff Lieutenant Dennis Stevenson had come across a one-car motor vehicle accident. When Deputy Groves arrived at the scene, he observed a vehicle lying on its top in the north ditch. The driver of the vehicle, Lee Allen Breuer, was still at the scene and apparently injured. He noticed that Breuer was unsteady on his feet. A passenger was still buckled into the passenger seat of Breuer's vehicle.
Breuer was taken by ambulance to the Grinnell hospital. Deputy Groves went to the hospital to continue his investigation. At the hospital, the deputy noticed that Breuer's eyes were bloodshot and watery and Breuer smelled of alcohol.
At 2:40 a.m., Deputy Groves asked Breuer to take a preliminary breath test. Breuer refused that test. At 3:02 a.m., the deputy invoked implied consent and requested a blood test. Breuer refused consent for a blood test. Deputy Groves then requested a urine specimen. Breuer did not respond.
Jasper County Deputy Sheriff Lieutenant Dennis Stevenson testified that at approximately 1:24 a.m. he was on patrol and came across a vehicle in the ditch off Highway 6. He observed that vehicle had rolled over and was resting on its top. Lieutenant Stevenson stopped and found Breuer lying on the ceiling of the vehicle. Lieutenant Stevenson was able to determine that Breuer had been driving the vehicle. A female passenger was still buckled into the passenger seat and was hanging upside down. The top of the vehicle had been pushed in during the rollover and the passenger was pinned inside the vehicle. The passenger was not in good condition. Breuer crawled out of the vehicle and provided his driver's license to Stevenson upon request. Lieutenant Stevenson detected the odor of an alcoholic beverage on Breuer and observed a number of beer cans in and around the vehicle. He also observed that Breuer was unsteady on his feet.
Lieutenant Stevenson called for assistance. A Grinnell police officer arrived, as did emergency medical personnel. Deputy Groves was the first Jasper County officer to respond. Breuer was transported to the Grinnell Regional Hospital. Deputy Groves went to the hospital to continue the investigation there. Eventually, Lieutenant Stevenson also went to the hospital. When Deputy Groves was not able to obtain consent from Breuer for withdrawal of his blood or a urine sample, the deputies decided to request a search warrant.
Lieutenant Stevenson contacted an assistant county attorney who assisted him in preparing a warrant application. Lieutenant Stevenson took the search warrant application to a magistrate, who reviewed the application and, at approximately 3:30 a.m., issued the search warrant authorizing withdrawal of a blood specimen from Breuer. At approximately 3:40 a.m., as Lieutenant Stevenson was driving back to the Grinnell hospital with the search warrant, he phoned Deputy Groves and advised Groves, "I have the warrant signed and it is in my hand."
Deputy Groves advised Breuer that officers had obtained a warrant for a blood specimen, and that a blood specimen was going to be drawn from Breuer. Breuer responded that he thought he had a right to refuse testing and did not want to provide a specimen. Breuer crossed his arms and refused to extend an arm to the nurse so that she could obtain a sample. Deputy Groves told Breuer that the blood specimen would be taken by force if necessary. Breuer then allowed a Grinnell Hospital employee, Joyce Hergott, to withdraw a blood specimen.
The blood specimen was drawn at 3:53 a.m. At the time it was drawn, Deputy Groves did not yet have physical possession of the search warrant. He estimated that he received a copy of the warrant ten to fifteen minutes after the specimen was obtained. When he got the warrant, Deputy Groves advised Breuer of that fact and placed a copy of the warrant with Breuer's property, which was on the floor next to his hospital bed. Deputy Groves also prepared a return to the search warrant showing that two vials of blood were taken. The return was given to Breuer by Jasper County Deputy Sheriff Shutts.
Joyce Hergott testified that she is a medical technologist and was working at the Grinnell Hospital on November 9, 2008. A deputy identified a man and asked her to draw blood. She drew two vials of blood and turned them over to the deputy.
Breuer's blood specimen was sent to the Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory for testing. Testing revealed that Breuer had a blood alcohol level of.171 g/100 ml.
The district court denied Breuer's motion to suppress. Noting there is no Iowa case on point, the district court relied upon federal authority, United States v. Grubbs, 547 U.S. 90, 99, 126 S. Ct. 1494, 1501, 164 L. Ed. 2d 195, 205 (2006), which upheld an anticipatory search warrant. The defendant argued that to satisfy the Fourth Amendment's particularity requirement, an anticipatory warrant must include, on its face, a description of the event expected to occur that will result in contraband, evidence of a crime or a fugitive being on the premises to be searched. See id. at 98, 126 S. Ct. at 1501, 164 L. Ed. 2d at 205 (citations omitted).
Grubbs, id. at 98-99, 126 S. Ct. at 1501, 164 L. Ed. 2d at 205.
On appeal, Breuer challenges the district court's denial of his motion to suppress the results of the chemical analysis conducted on a specimen of his blood. Breuer acknowledges that officers obtained a search warrant authorizingwithdrawal of the blood specimen and he does not challenge the validity of that warrant. He contends, however, that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution require officers to have the warrant in hand prior to the search.
Our review of constitutional issues is de novo. State v. Lyman, 776 N.W.2d 865, 873 (Iowa 2010). Our court independently evaluates the defendant's claim under the totality of the circumstances. Id. And while "[w]e zealously guard our ability to interpret the Iowa Constitution differently from authoritative interpretations of the United States Constitution by the United States Supreme Court," State v. Wilkes, 756 N.W.2d 838, 842 n.1 (Iowa 2008), we have generally interpreted the search and seizure clause of article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution in a manner consistent with the federal court's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. Wilkes, 756 N.W.2d at 842 n.1 (); State v. Fremont, 749 N.W.2d 234, 236 (Iowa 2008) (); State v. Carter, 733 N.W.2d 333, 337 (Iowa 2007) () (citing State v. Loyd, 530 N.W.2d 708, 711 (Iowa 1995)).
"Because the search was made pursuant to warrant, defendant had the burden of proof in the suppression hearing." State v. Farber, 314 N.W.2d 365, 367 (Iowa 1982).
In State v. Christianson, 627 N.W.2d 910, 913 (Iowa 2001), our supreme court recognized that "the sensitive and unique nature of any procedures involving intrusions into the human body" required strict application of our implied-consent statute. The Christianson court highlighted the following language in Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 769-70, 86 S. Ct. 1826, 1835, 16 L. Ed. 2d 908, 919 (1966):
Whatever the validity of these considerations in general, they have little applicability with respect to searches involving intrusions beyond the body's surface. The interests...
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