State v. Adams
State v. Adams
Opinion of the Court
The defendant has appealed from a judgment based on a finding of guilt upon a complaint charging her with the crime of operating a
The evidence shown by the finding to have been believed by the court, supplemented by such inferences as it could reasonably draw, may be summarized as follows: On July 14, 1963, at about 10 p.m., the defendant was operating a blue 1959 Pontiac convertible automobile in an easterly direction on the Merritt Parkway in the town of West-port. It was a hazy night, the roads were wet; it had been raining hard at 7 p.m. She was the sole occupant of the vehicle. The manner of her operation was first observed by Vantine, an auxiliary state policeman who had been assigned to patrol duty on the Merritt Parkway. He noticed that her car was “weaving erratically” and on two or three occasions had “bounced off” the right-hand curb and into the other lane of traffic. He radioed a state trooper, Ronald Dalton, who responded to the call but was unable to overtake the defendant’s vehicle because traffic had been building up in both lanes. He finally managed to get behind her vehicle for about two-tenths of a mile. She struck the right-hand curbing several times, drifted from one lane to another, and then cut sharply back into the right-hand lane. While the trooper was attempting to attract her attention by sounding his siren, the defendant again moved into the left-hand lane, forcing the trooper’s car onto the esplanade. The
Both officers testified that, on the basis of their observation of the manner in which the defendant operated the vehicle, their conversations with her and her responses and general appearance, she was ander the inflaenee of intoxicating liqaor and anfit to operate a motor vehicle. The defendant took the witness stand. She denied she was ander the influence of intoxicating liqaor. There was a sharp conflict as to the defendant’s condition at the time in question. This presented a qaestion of credibility. The fact that one set of witnesses is believed rather than another apon a closely controverted issae affords no gronnd in and of itself for interfering with the finding of the coart. Upon the dispated issae of her intoxication, the coart concladed that “the defendant was ander the inflaenee of [intoxicating] liqaor to saeh an appreciable degree that her ability to operate a motor vehicle was greatly impaired.”
We are satisfied, from a careful study of the whole record in the case before us, that on all the evidence, including the inferences which the court was amply warranted in drawing, it was justified in concluding that the defendant was guilty of the offense charged beyond a reasonable doubt.
There is no error.
In this opinion Kosicki and Levine, Js., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State of Connecticut v. Helen H. Adams
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published