State v. Borrelli
State v. Borrelli
Opinion of the Court
Opinion
The defendant, Kimberly Mahoney Borrelli, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a court trial, of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs in violation of General Statutes § 14-227a (a).
The evidence before the court was as follows. On September 23, 2002, the defendant drove her vehicle to Saxe Middle School in New Canaan in the late afternoon to pick up her daughter after soccer practice. The defendant’s husband, who was also at the practice, and the defendant spent about fifteen minutes talking to each other and then left the practice for their home in separate vehicles. The defendant drove a blue Range Rover. She had her nine year old daughter in the passenger seat. The defendant had driven the route from the soccer field to her home many times. Her husband followed her in his vehicle for approximately one mile and then turned off in another direction at around 5 p.m. to get some food for dinner. The defendant’s husband did not observe anything unusual about the defendant’s driving during the four or five minutes that he followed her.
At approximately 5:15 p.m., Elizabeth Hudson was driving her car on Weed Street in New Canaan when she noticed a blue Range Rover being driven erratically. Hudson observed other vehicles going around the Range Rover, but she stayed behind it. She noticed the Range Rover stopping in the road and then rolling forward. She also noticed that at times it was in the left lane, which was the lane for oncoming traffic. The Range Rover turned left onto Wahackame Road, where it continued to travel in the lane for oncoming traffic. It also struck some bushes on the right side of the road.
Hudson stopped her vehicle, walked to the Range Rover and asked the operator, the defendant,
Officer Roy Adams and Sergeant Fred Pickering of the New Canaan police department arrived at the intersection of Ponus Ridge Road and Clearwater Lane. They observed the Range Rover at a stop partially in Clearwater Lane and partially on grass. The officers noticed a woman, a young girl and two dogs in the vehicle. The woman was identified as the defendant. Adams asked the defendant if she had been drinking alcohol or taking drugs. She responded that she had not been drinking. She said that she was taking various prescription medications and nonprescription medications. She stated that an allergy medication had caused her to be drowsy.
At the police department, the defendant again denied drinking any alcohol and repeated the various medications she was taking. After consulting with an attorney by telephone, the defendant consented to giving urine samples for toxicological testing. The defendant requested that she also be given a blood test, but the police refused her request and elected to test by urine samples. She produced a urine sample, which was dis
At the time of this incident, the defendant suffered from certain unspecified allergies and Crohn’s disease. Dehydration due to Crohn’s disease can also cause slurred speech, dizziness and disorientation. The defendant had a history of severe flare-ups of her Crohn’s disease for which she had been hospitalized on at least one occasion prior to September 23, 2002.
Starting in November, 2001, the defendant was also being treated by Ellen Shander, a psychiatrist, for severe depression. Her prescribed antidepressant medications were nortriptyline, Klonopin, trazodone and Xanax.
In addition to her prescribed antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications, the defendant took two over-the-counter medications on September 23, 2002. She took Benadryl sometime during the previous night and a single Tavist-D during the afternoon of September 23. The court determined that the defendant took the
The defendant was charged with one count of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs in violation of § 14-227a, one count of reckless driving in violation of General Statutes § 14-222 (a)
I
The defendant’s first claim on appeal is that there was insufficient evidence to convict her of violating § 14-227a (a) (1). “The standard of review employed in a sufficiency of the evidence claim is well settled. [W]e apply a two part test. First, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the [decision]. Second, we determine whether upon the facts so construed and the inferences reasonably drawn therefrom
Here, the court found sufficient evidence to show that the defendant was impaired and that her impairment was caused by a drug or drugs. Specifically, the court found that the defendant’s vehicle was seen by Hudson weaving across the road and being driven erratically. Both Adams and Pickering noted the defendant’s slurred speech, glassy eyes, confusion and disorientation. The defendant stumbled when getting out of her vehicle and failed two different field sobriety tests. Moreover, the defendant admitted at the time of the incident that she was having a bad reaction to an allergy pill. The court found that she had ingested Tavist-D approximately two hours before her arrest.
Furthermore, although Pinder could not offer an opinion about whether the defendant was under the influence of any drug on September 23, 2002, Shander did testify that a person with Crohn’s disease who took Tavist-D would have symptoms of slurred speech, ataxia and disorientation. The evidence submitted to the court was consistent with the court’s finding that the defendant was operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of a drug. Accordingly, the court had sufficient evidence to convict the defendant of
II
The defendant’s second claim on appeal is that the court improperly rejected her defense of involuntary intoxication. She claims that her intoxication was involuntary and, therefore, that it rendered her unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the law because she did not know that Tavist-D could affect her mental processes as it did. She further claims that to convict her under § 14-227a (a) (1), the state should have been required to show that she knew or should have known that the substance she ingested could cause her to lack to an appreciable degree the ability to operate her vehicle properly. We disagree. Although the defendant’s intoxication was involuntary, we conclude that she still possessed the mental state necessary to convict her of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs. The interpretations of the requirements to convict for a violation of § 14-227a (a), as well as whether involuntary intoxication is a defense to such a charge, are questions of law and, therefore, the court’s review is de novo. See Andover Ltd. Partnership I v. Board of Tax Review, 232 Conn. 392, 396, 655 A.2d 759 (1995).
A
The availability of intoxication as a defense to a criminal charge is governed by General Statutes § 53a-7.
B
The defendant argues that pursuant to § 14-227a, the state was required to prove that she knew or should have known that she had ingested an intoxicant. We disagree. The statute fails to state that operating a motor
Furthermore, the courts of this state repeatedly have held that the only intent required for a conviction of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs is the intent to operate a motor vehicle. See State v. Swift, 125 Conn. 399, 402-403, 6 A.2d 359 (1939); see, e.g., State v. Wiggs, 60 Conn. App. 551, 554-55; 760 A.2d 148 (2000); State v. Gracia, 51 Conn. App. 4, 12, 719 A.2d 1196 (1998); State v. Ducatt, supra, 22 Conn. App. 92-93. Accordingly, the state was required to prove only that the defendant intended to operate her vehicle, not that the defendant knew or should have known that she had ingested an intoxicant.
Ill
The defendant’s third and final claim is that the court’s decision to find her guilty of operating a motor
Here, each offense contains at least one element that the others do not. For example, a defendant may be found guilty of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs under § 14-227a (a) (1) only if the state establishes that she operated a motor vehicle on a public highway, or on one of the statute’s other designated areas, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs. Conversely, intoxication is not an element of reckless driving in violation of § 14-222 (a). A conviction for reckless driving requires the state to prove that the defendant operated a motor vehicle in a manner that was reckless with regard to the width, traffic and use of the highway. Risk of injury to a child, as charged under § 53-21 (a) (1), contains elements that are entirely different from those
Furthermore, the court’s decisions were reasonably and logically reached. The court rejected the defendant’s defense of involuntary intoxication with respect to the charge of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs because the evidence showed that she, nonetheless, possessed the general intent to operate a motor vehicle. The court found the defendant not guilty of reckless driving, however, because her involuntary intoxication made her incapable of perceiving the risks associated with her erratic driving. Similarly, the court found the defendant not guilty of risk of injury to a child because the confusion and disorientation caused by her reaction to the Tavist-D precluded her ability to have the specific wilful intent, which is an element of this crime. Each of the three crimes at issue required a different mens rea. Accordingly, we conclude that the court’s decisions were not inconsistent.
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
General Statutes § 14-227a (a) provides: “Operation while under the influence or while having an elevated blood alcohol content. No person shall operate a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug or both. A person commits the offense of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug or both if such person operates a motor vehicle on a public highway of this state or on any road of a district organized under the provisions of chapter 105, a purpose of which is the construction and maintenance of roads and sidewalks, or on any private road on which aspeed limit has been established in accordance with the provisions of section 14-218a, or in any parking area
In court, Hudson identified the defendant as the operator of the Range Rover on September 23, 2002.
The street where the defendant stopped her vehicle was one to two miles from her home.
The defendant suffered from Crohn’s disease, which is an extreme inflammation of the large intestine. It results in the patient having flare-ups that include diarrhea, extreme pain and dehydration.
Nortriptyline and trazodone are antidepressants. Klonopin and Xanax are antianxiety medications that decrease panic attacks.
The defendant testified that she told the police that she took Tavist-D at approximately 1 p.m., but on the videotape of her interview at the police station, which was admitted into evidence as state’s exhibit two, she said that she was napping at 1 p.m. and took the Tavist-D pill at approximately 3 p.m. The officers entered 3 p.m. on their report as the last time she had taken any medications.
General Statutes § 14-222 (a) provides: “No person shall operate any motor vehicle upon any public highway of the state, or any road of any specially chartered municipal association or of any district organized under the provisions of chapter 105, a purpose of which is the construction and maintenance of roads and sidewalks, or in any parking area for ten cars or more or upon any private road on which a speed limit has been established in accordance with the provisions of section 14-218a or upon any school property recklessly, having regard to the width, traffic and use of such highway, road, school property or parking area, the intersection of streets and the weather conditions. The operation of a motor vehicle upon any such highway, road or parking area for ten cars or more at such a rate of speed as to endanger the life of any person other than the operator of such motor vehicle, or the operation, downgrade, upon any highway, of any motor vehicle with a commercial registration with the clutch or gears disengaged,
General Statutes (Rev. to 2001) § 53-21 (a) provides in relevant part: “Any person who (1) wilfully or unlawfully causes or permits any child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that the life or limb of such child is endangered, the health of such child is likely to be injured or the morals of such child are likely to be impaired, or does any act likely to impair the health or morals of any such child . . . shall be guilty of a class C felony.”
Notwithstanding the apparent involuntary nature of the defendant’s intoxication, the state pursued all three charges.
General Statutes § 53a-7 provides: “Intoxication shall not be a defense to a criminal charge, but in any prosecution for an offense evidence of intoxication of the defendant may be offered by the defendant whenever it is relevant to negate an element of the crime charged, provided when recklessness or criminal negligence is an element of the crime charged, if the actor, due to self-induced intoxication, is unaware of or disregards or fails to perceive a risk which he would have been aware of had he not been intoxicated, such unawareness, disregard or failure to perceive shall be immaterial. As used in this section, ‘intoxication’ means a substantial distur
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. KIMBERLY MAHONEY BORRELLI
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published