State v. Dolan
| Decision Date | 24 June 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-248,96-248 |
| Citation | 940 P.2d 436,283 Mont. 245 |
| Parties | STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Lynda M. DOLAN, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
J.G. Shockley, Attorney at Law, Victor, for Defendant and Appellant.
Joseph P. Mazurek, Attorney General; Jennifer Anders, Assistant Attorney General; Helena, Robert L. "Dusty" Deschamps III, Missoula County Attorney, Missoula, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Lynda M. Dolan was convicted in Ravalli County Justice Court of the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol, in violation of § 61-8-401, MCA. She appealed to the District Court for the Twenty-First Judicial District in Ravalli County and moved to suppress evidence obtained from two blood tests. The District Court denied Dolan's motion to suppress and denied her motion for reconsideration. Following a jury trial, Dolan was convicted of the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol. Dolan appeals the District Court's order which denied her motion to suppress. In addition, Dolan appeals her conviction and sentence for the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol. We reverse the order and judgment of the District Court and remand to that court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
We address two issues on appeal:
1. Did the District Court err when it denied Dolan's motion to suppress evidence of the results of a nonconsensual warrantless blood alcohol test requested by the Montana Highway Patrol and supplied by the Community Medical Center?
2. Did the District Court err when it denied Dolan's motion to suppress evidence of the results of a routine blood sample taken by the Community Medical Center and obtained by the State pursuant to an investigative subpoena?
Lynda Dolan was involved in a motor vehicle accident at 5:27 p.m. on December 19, 1994, when the vehicle she was operating collided with the rear-end of a stopped vehicle on Highway 93 near Florence. Both vehicles were extensively damaged and the drivers of both vehicles sustained serious injuries. Missoula Emergency Services, Inc., dispatched an ambulance, which transported Dolan to the Community Medical Center in Missoula.
Montana Highway Patrol Supervisor Warren Schiffer and Montana Highway Patrol Officer Mike Reddick arrived at the accident scene after Dolan had been removed by the Missoula Emergency Services ambulance. Because Dolan was no longer present at the scene, neither officer communicated with or interviewed her personally to determine her condition at the time of the accident. In addition, neither officer inspected Dolan's vehicle at the accident scene. Officer Reddick, who was the primary investigator at the scene, testified later that he spoke with someone at the scene who informed him that Dolan's breath had smelled of alcohol. Although Officer Reddick believed that the informant was a paramedic, he did not obtain the informant's name or verify his position as a medical technician. On the basis of the informant's statement, however, and because the injuries were serious enough to warrant investigation as a possible negligent homicide, Officer Reddick contacted Officer Tom Monzon in Missoula and requested that he obtain a blood sample from Dolan for blood alcohol content analysis.
At 6:41 p.m., the Medical Center drew a routine blood sample for medical treatment purposes. That test showed Dolan's blood alcohol level to be .109 grams of alcohol per 100 liters of blood.
Officer Monzon arrived at the Community Medical Center at approximately 7:00 p.m. and requested that the hospital withdraw another blood sample from Dolan. A hospital nurse, Dianne Peterson, took a sample of Dolan's blood at approximately 7:12 p.m. The results of that test later revealed that Dolan's blood alcohol content was .08 grams per 100 liters of blood. Officer Monzon did not arrest Dolan prior to ordering the blood test, nor did he obtain Dolan's consent to the blood test, pursuant to § 61-8-402, MCA.
On January 31, 1995, Dolan was charged by complaint in the Justice Court for Ravalli County with the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol, pursuant to § 61-8-401, MCA. On May 11, 1995, the State requested and received an investigative subpoena duces tecum compelling the production of Dolan's medical records from the Community Medical Center relating to Dolan's blood alcohol level from the time of her admission until midnight of December 19, 1994. After the State received those medical records, Dolan filed a motion in which she sought the suppression of (1) the results of the routine blood sample taken by the Community Medical Center at 6:41 p.m. on December 19, 1994, as well as all medical records, memoranda, and related documents and reports relating to that blood sample; and (2) the results of the blood alcohol sample ordered by the State and supplied by the Community Medical Center at 7:12 p.m. on December 19, 1994. The Justice Court denied Dolan's motion to suppress and convicted Dolan of the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Dolan appealed to the District Court for the Twenty-First Judicial District in Ravalli County and filed a similar motion to suppress the results of the two blood tests. In her motion, Dolan maintained that the nonconsensual blood test ordered by the State should be suppressed because it violated both Montana's implied consent statute found at § 61-8-402, MCA, and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In addition, Dolan maintained that the Community Medical Center's routine blood sample should be suppressed because those results were improperly acquired by the State pursuant to an investigative subpoena which was issued on the basis of the State's illegal blood test.
On November 1, 1995, the District Court issued an order in which it denied Dolan's motion to suppress the results of the two blood tests. In its order, the court concluded that the State-ordered blood test should not be suppressed because (1) the State had not violated the implied consent statute since that statute was not triggered until Dolan was arrested for the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol; and (2) the State had not violated the search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution because the State had possessed the requisite probable cause to order a warrantless seizure of Dolan's blood. In addition, the court concluded that the routine hospital blood test results should not be suppressed because the State-ordered blood test, upon which the subpoena for the hospital records was based, was not illegally obtained.
On December 11, 1995, a jury found Dolan guilty of the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol, in violation of § 61-8-401, MCA. The District Court stayed imposition of Dolan's sentence pending her appeal to this Court.
In this case, the District Court denied Dolan's motion for suppression of two blood tests taken after her accident on December 19, 1994. We review a district court's denial of a motion to suppress to determine whether the court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous and whether those findings were correctly applied as a matter of law. State v. New (1996), 276 Mont. 529, 533, 917 P.2d 919, 921. "A finding of fact is clearly erroneous if it is not supported by substantial evidence, if the district court misapprehended the effect of the evidence, or if this Court has a definite and firm conviction that the district court has made a mistake." State v. Cassell (1996), 280 Mont. 397, ----, 932 P.2d 478, 479.
Did the District Court err when it denied Dolan's motion to suppress evidence of the results of a nonconsensual warrantless blood alcohol test requested by the Montana Highway Patrol and supplied by the Community Medical Center?
Dolan asserts that the District Court erred when it considered evidence from the Justice Court files, in the form of Dolan's medical records, to support its denial of the motion to suppress the State-ordered test. In addition, Dolan maintains that the District Court erred when it concluded that the nonconsensual blood test met the requirements of the "exigent circumstances" exception to the warrant requirements of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Article II, Section 11, of the Montana Constitution. Specifically, Dolan contends that Officer Monzon did not have the requisite probable cause, at the time he ordered the test, to believe that she had been driving under the influence of alcohol. Therefore, Dolan maintains that the State-ordered test was an unconstitutional search and seizure of her person prohibited by both the United States and Montana Constitutions.
It is well established that the administration of a blood test for the purpose of obtaining evidence of guilt constitutes a "search" and a "seizure" which triggers the constitutional protections of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Article II, Section 11, of the Montana Constitution. Schmerber v. California (1966), 384 U.S. 757, 767, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 1834, 16 L.Ed.2d 908, 918; State v. Kirkaldie (1978), 179 Mont. 283, 289, 587 P.2d 1298, 1302. A warrantless seizure of blood may, however, be permissible under both constitutional provisions if it falls within one of the exceptions to the warrant requirement. State v. Hyem (1981), 193 Mont. 51, 56, 630 P.2d 202, 205. One such exception, adopted by the United States Supreme Court in Schmerber, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908, provides that a nonconsensual warrantless blood sample maybe taken without violating the defendant's constitutional rights if exigent circumstances exist. See also Winston v. Lee (1985), 470 U.S. 753, 105 S.Ct. 1611, 84 L.Ed.2d 662. Specifically, the "exigent circumstances" exception allows for a warrantless search and seizure of a...
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State v. Legrand
...constitution providing that" '[t]he right of the people to privacy is recognized and shall not be infringed' ''); State v. Dolan, 283 Mont. 245, 257, 940 P.2d 436 (1997) (''medical records requested by the prosecutor are protected by a constitutional right of privacy, as provided by Article......
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...carefully drawn exceptions to the warrant requirement recognized under Montana's unique constitutional language. State v. Dolan (1997), 283 Mont. 245, 252, 940 P.2d 436, 440. One of the exceptions recognized in Montana is a search incident to a lawful arrest. Elison, ¶ ¶ 37 Here, it is unco......
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