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STATE v. EASTMAN3/12/1997
[ 1] Defendant, Randy Eastman, appeals the judgment entered in the Superior Court (York County, Crowley, J.) convicting him of operating under the influence of intoxicants in violation of 29-A M.R.S.A. § 2411 (1996). Defendant argues on appeal that the District Court (Biddeford, MacNichol, J.) erred in denying his motion to suppress certain evidence ultimately admitted against him at trial and makes several other constitutional arguments not presented to the trial court. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment.
[ 2] The facts as developed at trial may be summarized as follows. On September 8, 1995, at approximately one o'clock in the morning, Officer Charles Snow of the Saco Police Department was parked near a sports bar. He heard "several loud popping sounds like fire crackers going off" and saw defendant driving his car out of a parking space that had smoke rising from it. A group of people were pointing at defendant's car. The officer pursued defendant for a short distance and he pulled over.
[ 3] On approaching defendant's driver-side window, the officer noticed a strong odor of alcohol coming from inside the vehicle. In response to questioning, defendant told the officer that he had consumed three beers that evening. At that point, the officer asked defendant to get out of his car to perform field sobriety tests. After defendant got out of the vehicle, the officer again smelled alcohol, saw that defendant had bloodshot eyes, and noted that his speech was slurred. The officer testified that he then administered the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk-and-turn test, the one-leg stand test, a finger dexterity test, an alphabet test, and a counting test. He testified that defendant had difficulty in performing these sobriety tests. He then arrested defendant and transported him to the Saco police station where a breath test indicated that his blood alcohol level was .13.
[ 4] Defendant was charged with operating under the influence and he entered a plea of not guilty. Defendant then moved to suppress certain statements he made after the office stopped him. A hearing on this motion was held in the District Court (Biddeford, MacNichol, J.). The hearing, unlike the written motion, focused on the legality of the field sobriety test results. Defendant challenged the results at the hearing on the ground that they were: (1) the fruit of an unreasonable seizure; and (2) evidence that he was improperly compelled to furnish against himself in violation of Article I, section 6 of the Maine Constitution. The District Court rejected both of these arguments and denied the motion to suppress.
[ 5] The case was transferred to the Superior Court for trial. The jury found defendant guilty. He was convicted and sentenced to nine days in county jail, his license and right to register a motor vehicle were suspended for eighteen months, and he was ordered to pay a $750 fine plus surcharges and fees. Defendant now appeals
I. Fourth Amendment
[ 6] The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. In order to comply with these provisions, a field sobriety test, like any investigatory stop, must be based on "`specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion.'" State v. Dulac, 600 A.2d 1121, 1122 (Me. 1992) (quoting Terry v. Ohio,
392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). "A police officer may make an investigatory stop if at the time of the stop the officer has an articulable suspicion, objectively reasonable in light of all the circumstances, that the object of the search has committed or
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