State v. Cummings

• Decision Date: 23 June 2005
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. John R. CUMMINGS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

875 A.2d 906

184 N.J. 84

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. John R. CUMMINGS, Defendant-Appellant.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued March 15, 2005.

Decided June 23, 2005.

John Menzel, Point Pleasant, argued the cause for appellant (Moore & Menzel, attorneys).

Annmarie Cozzi, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for respondent (John L. Molinelli, Bergen County Prosecutor, attorney).

Justice RIVERA-SOTO delivered the opinion of the Court.

In 1981, the Legislature engaged in a substantial and comprehensive revision of our laws governing the operation of motor vehicles by intoxicated persons. As part of that revision, the Legislature provided that a person arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated who refuses to submit to a chemical test of his breath to determine the content of alcohol in his blood would be subject to certain enumerated, enhanced penalties. In determining the burden of proof for the imposition of those enhanced penalties, the Legislature, at the request of the Governor, provided that the determination whether an accused was statutorily eligible for such penalties would be determined by the civil standard of a preponderance of the evidence.

This appeal requires that we consider, in light of intervening decisions of this Court, whether the statutory burden of proof in a breathalyzer refusal case comports with appropriate constitutional due process requirements for quasi-criminal actions. We hold that, because a breathalyzer refusal case is properly a quasi-criminal matter, the constitutionally required burden of proof is the one applicable to criminal cases: proof beyond a reasonable doubt. We further hold this ruling shall have "pipeline retroactivity" effect. Finally, we remand this case to the municipal court, where the defendant is to be afforded the opportunity either to withdraw his plea and proceed to trial under the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof, or to accept his earlier conviction and sentence.

I.

On January 7, 2003, defendant John R. Cummings was stopped by Mahwah Township Police Officer Michael Blondin for illegally crossing the center line of traffic. Based on his observations, Officer Blondin believed that defendant was under the influence of an intoxicant and, hence, arrested defendant. Once at the police station, Officer Blondin read aloud to defendant the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission's standard statement required under N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.2(e), and twice requested that defendant submit to a breathalyzer test. Defendant twice refused. Based on those facts, Officer Blondin issued several citations to defendant, including citations for driving while intoxicated in violation of N.J.S.A. 39:4-50, and refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test in violation of N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a (Refusal Statute).¹ On May 29, 2003, defendant, represented by counsel, appeared before the Mahwah Municipal Court and moved to dismiss the citation charging him with refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test. As argued before the municipal court, defendant asserted that the preponderance of the evidence burden of proof set forth in the Refusal Statute violated his due process rights and that, given the nature of the charges against him, he was constitutionally entitled to a trial by jury. Both applications were denied and, pursuant to R. 3:9-3(f), defendant entered a conditional guilty plea to violating the Refusal Statute.² On the charge of violating the Refusal Statute, the municipal court sentenced defendant to an aggregate of $605 in fines, court costs, surcharges and penalties and assessments; a mandatory twelve hours of instruction at the Intoxicated Driver Resource Center; and a mandatory six month suspension of defendant's right to operate a motor vehicle. At defendant's request, the municipal court stayed the imposition of defendant's sentence under the Refusal Statute pending appeal to the Law Division on the issues preserved by defendant's retraxit plea.

Defendant appealed and, on November 12, 2003, the Law Division conducted a trial de novo that consisted solely of argument on defendant's two legal contentions; no facts or other proofs were adduced. The Law Division also rejected defendant's constitutional due process challenge to the preponderance of the evidence burden of proof embodied in the Refusal Statute, found defendant guilty of refusing to submit to the breathalyzer test, and imposed the same sentence as had the municipal court.³ The Law Division also stayed defendant's sentence pending appeal.

Before the Appellate Division, defendant again maintained that the preponderance of the evidence burden of proof set forth in the Refusal Statute violated his due process rights and that, given the nature of the charges against him, he was constitutionally entitled to a trial by jury. In an unpublished opinion, the panel rejected both constitutional arguments. The Appellate Division, relying on State v. Fahrer, 212 N.J.Super. 571, 515 A.2d 1240 (App. Div.1986), and State v. Todaro, 242 N.J.Super. 177, 576 A.2d 307 (App.Div. 1990), "upheld the constitutionality of N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a, which requires the State to prove a refusal to consent to a breathalyzer test only by a preponderance of the evidence," and affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence.⁴ We granted certification to consider only one issue: whether the preponderance of the evidence burden of proof in the Refusal Statute violates due process. 182 N.J. 148, 862 A.2d 56 (2004).

II.

A.

In its original iteration, the Refusal Statute provided that any driver's license suspensions to be imposed for failing to submit to a breathalyzer test were to be imposed administratively, through the then Director of Motor Vehicles. L. 1966, c. 142, § 4 (originally codified at N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4). Placed in context, the penalties at that time for a violation of the Refusal Statute were limited to an administratively imposed six-month suspension of driving privileges. Ibid. As part of the Legislature's revision to New Jersey's driving while intoxicated laws intended "to curb the senseless havoc and destruction caused by intoxicated drivers," State v. Tischio, 107 N.J. 504, 512, 527 A.2d 388 (1987), the Legislature shifted the forum for the imposition of all penalties under the Refusal Statute from the administrative to the judicial forum and proposed that the burden of proof be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Wright, 107 N.J. 488, 503 n. 8, 527 A.2d 379 (1987). The Governor, however, conditionally vetoed that provision, stating

I believe that the beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof is an unusually harsh burden of proof in a non-criminal case and will encourage more people to refuse to submit to a breathalyzer test. Thus, I recommend that the preponderance of the evidence standard currently utilized in the administrative hearing of this type of case be retained.

[Report of the Governor to the Assembly re: Assembly Bill No. 2293 (January 4, 1982).]

"The Assembly adopted the Governor's recommendation and, as finally passed, N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a provides for a preponderance of the evidence standard of proof for breathalyzer refusal convictions. L. 1981, c. 512, § 2." State v. Wright, supra, 107 N.J. at 503 n. 8, 527 A.2d 379.

Since the preponderance of the evidence standard was adopted in judicially determined breathalyzer refusal cases, the penalties under the Refusal Statute have increased significantly. In contrast with the earlier penalties, a first-time offender who today is convicted of refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test after being arrested for driving while intoxicated faces a suspension of his driving privileges for a minimum of seven months to a maximum of twelve months, a fine of not less than $500, and mandatory confinement of twelve to forty-eight hours at an Intoxicated Driver Resource Center. See L. 2004, c. 8, § 1 (amending N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a, eff. Apr. 26, 2004).⁵ Those penalties increase for repeat offenders as well as for those offenses committed on or within 1,000 feet of school property or while driving through a school crossing. Ibid. It is against this backdrop that we consider the burden of proof required in order to sustain a conviction under the Refusal Statute which, by its explicit terms, provides as follows:

The municipal court shall determine by a preponderance of the evidence whether the arresting officer had probable cause to believe that the person had been driving or was in actual physical control of a motor vehicle on the public highways or quasi-public areas of this State while the person was under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a narcotic, hallucinogenic, or habit-producing drug or marijuana; whether the person was placed under arrest, if appropriate, and whether he refused to submit to the test upon request of the officer; and if these elements of the violation are not established, no conviction shall issue. [N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a (emphasis supplied).]

In State v. Fahrer, 212 N.J.Super. 571, 515 A.2d 1240 (App.Div.1986), the Appellate Division addressed the standard of proof in breathalyzer refusal hearings in the context of the Legislature's intent, holding that "[w]hile prosecutions under the Motor Vehicle Act are sometimes considered quasi-criminal actions, the legislative history of N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a evinces an intent that proceedings under this statute continue as civil in nature thus requiring only a preponderance standard for conviction." Id. at 576, 515 A.2d 1240 (citations omitted). As the Appellate Division then understood, because the elements of the Refusal Statute remained unchanged, "the apparent intent of the Legislature was to retain the civil nature of the proceeding with a change in the forum only for the purpose of providing `an efficacious means of [disposing] of all issues related to the drunk driving law in the most convenient forum.'" Id. at 577, 515 A.2d 1240 (citations omitted). The panel...