State v. Edelman
State v. Edelman
Opinion of the Court
¶ 1. This case asks whether Vermont's implied consent statute precludes a defendant from arguing that the results of an evidentiary breath test should be suppressed because the defendant's consent to the evidentiary breath test was not voluntary. Defendant Walker Edelman appeals a trial court order denying his motion to suppress and dismiss, in which the trial court concluded that the Legislature had effectively granted automatic and presumptive consent to an evidentiary breath test by means of the implied consent statute and therefore defendant could not challenge admission of an evidentiary breath sample as involuntarily obtained. We reverse and remand.
¶ 2. The facts are undisputed. Police received a tip on the evening of July 13, 2016, that a car with out-of-state license plates was having difficulty maintaining its speed and lane position. The tip identified the first three characters on the car's license plates. Shortly after receiving the tip, an officer spotted a vehicle that matched the tip's description and initiated a traffic stop. Defendant was driving the car. The officer smelled alcohol upon making contact with defendant and noted that defendant's pupils were dilated. The officer asked defendant to step out of the car so that the officer could conduct field sobriety exercises. The field sobriety exercises resulted in several clues indicating impairment. The officer also administered a preliminary breath test, which resulted in a reading of .119. The officer then arrested defendant for driving under the influence and transported him to the police station. At the station, the officer read defendant Vermont's implied consent law verbatim, including the law's provisions that the officer could request an evidentiary breath sample to be used to determine whether defendant was under the influence and that defendant could consult with an attorney before deciding whether to provide an evidentiary breath sample. Defendant indicated that he understood the language read by the officer, did not want to consult with an attorney, and would provide the requested evidentiary breath sample. Defendant's evidentiary sample indicated a blood alcohol content of .127. Defendant was subsequently charged with violating 23 V.S.A. § 1201(a)(2), operating a motor vehicle on a public highway while under the influence of intoxicating liquor.
¶ 3. Defendant was arraigned the next day. At his arraignment, he pled not guilty. Approximately a month later, defendant filed a motion to suppress the results of his evidentiary breath test on grounds that the sample was obtained without a warrant or valid consent in violation of both the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution. Defendant also filed a motion to dismiss the charge against him. The trial court denied both motions without an evidentiary hearing, deciding that the implied consent law provided consent *559to the taking of an evidentiary breath sample and defendant, therefore, could not as a matter of law argue that the sample was taken without voluntary consent. Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea, reserving the right to appeal the trial court's decision. He now appeals.
¶ 4. This case presents a narrow, and exclusively legal, question-whether the statutory implied consent law stands in for the requirements of Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution such that a defendant cannot challenge admission of the results of an evidentiary breath test as obtained without voluntary consent. As with any question of pure law, this Court reviews the trial court's legal conclusions in a denial of a motion to suppress de novo. State v. Coburn,
¶ 5. In relevant part, Vermont's implied consent law provides the following:
Every person who operates, attempts to operate, or is in actual physical control of any vehicle on a highway in this State is deemed to have given consent to an evidentiary test of that person's breath for the purpose of determining the person's alcohol concentration or the presence of other drug in the blood.
23 V.S.A. § 1202(a)(1). The evidentiary test described in this section "shall be required of a person when a law enforcement officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person was operating, attempting to operate, or in actual physical control of a vehicle" under the influence of either alcohol or another intoxicating substance.
¶ 6. In State v. McGuigan, we held that a preliminary breath test is a search for purposes of Article 11.
That the people have a right to hold themselves, their houses, papers, and possessions, free from search or seizure; and therefore warrants, without oath or affirmation first made, affording sufficient foundation for them, and whereby by any officer or messenger may be commanded or required to search suspected places, or to seize any person or persons, his, her or their property, not particularly described, are contrary to that right, and ought not to be granted.
Vt. Const. ch. I, art. 11. Under Article 11, "[w]arrantless searches are ... per se unreasonable."
*560State v. Medina,
¶ 7. A law enforcement officer's warrantless request for an evidentiary breath sample meets the requirements of Article 11 for two reasons. First, for purposes of Vermont's implied consent law, "the term 'reasonable grounds' is akin to probable cause." State v. Perley,
¶ 8. Second, and more importantly, a driver asked to take an evidentiary breath test "is not required to submit to a test." State v. Muzzy,
*561¶ 9. As such, and as in other contexts, a defendant may argue that based upon particular circumstances, consent was not given voluntarily. To hold otherwise would render § 1202 roughly equivalent to a legislatively granted general warrant. This is contrary to the purposes of Article 11 -"[t]he warrant requirement ... favors judicial decisionmaking over legislative decisionmaking-that is, evaluations made on a case-by-case basis, with particularized suspicion, rather than on the issuance of 'general warrants'-or laws that may essentially function as general warrants." Medina,
¶ 10. This is not to say that the State is required to prove voluntariness as a threshold matter every time it intends to admit breath test results. But when a specific challenge is made in a given case, the State must make the required showing that the defendant voluntarily submitted to the breath test. "Voluntariness is to be determined from the totality of the circumstances, with the State carrying the burden of demonstrating that the consent was freely given and not coerced by threats or force, or granted only in submission to a claim of lawful authority." State v. Betts,
Reversed and remanded.
We acknowledge that some of our caselaw may be read to say that, contrary to our holding here, Vermont's implied consent law can stand in for voluntary consent to an evidentiary breath test. For example, in Morale, we stated that "[b]ecause a DUI suspect is already deemed to have consented to the breath test, no impermissible coercion is involved when the suspect refuses to submit to take the test."
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Vermont v. Walker P. EDELMAN
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published