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County of Jefferson v. Renz12/22/1999
Complete Title of Case: County of Jefferson, Plaintiff-Respondent-Petitioner, v. Christopher D. Renz, Defendant-Appellant.
ON REVIEW OF A DECISION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS Reported at: 222 Wis. 2d 424, 588 N.W.2d 267 (Ct. App. 1998, Published)
Oral Argument: September 9, 1999
Source of APPEAL COURT: Circuit COUNTY: Jefferson JUDGE: John Ullsvik
JUSTICES: Concurred: ABRAHAMSON, C.J., concurs. (opin. filed) BRADLEY, J., joins.
REVIEW of a decision of the Court of Appeals. Reversed and cause remanded.
. The petitioner, Jefferson County, seeks review of a published decision of the court of appeals, County of Jefferson v. Renz, 222 Wis. 2d 424, 588 N.W.2d 267 (Ct. App. 1998), which held that a law enforcement officer must have probable cause for an arrest before asking a driver suspected of driving while intoxicated to submit to a preliminary breath test (PBT) under Wis. Stat. § 343.303 (1993-94). The court of appeals reversed the judgment of conviction against the defendant, Christopher Renz, for driving while intoxicated (OWI) and with a prohibited alcohol concentration (PAC), which was entered in the circuit court for Jefferson County, Judge John M. Ullsvik.
. The sole issue on appeal is whether a law enforcement officer is required to have probable cause for arrest before asking a suspect to submit to a PBT. We conclude that the legislature did not intend to require an officer to have probable cause to arrest before requesting a PBT. We therefore reverse the court of appeals and remand the cause to the circuit court for reinstatement of the judgment of conviction.
I.
. The parties agree that the facts in this case are as follows. At about 2:00 a.m. on February 12, 1996, Deputy Sheriff David Drayna of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department was on duty as a patrol officer. As he traveled west on Highway 106, a Chevy Camaro with a loud exhaust passed by heading east. Concluding that the exhaust system was in violation of the law, the officer pulled the Camaro over.
. When the officer approached the car, the defendant rolled down his window, presented a Wisconsin driver's license and identified himself as Christopher Renz. The officer informed him that he had been stopped for a defective exhaust, and the defendant acknowledged that the exhaust leaked and was loud. During this initial conversation, the officer smelled a strong odor of intoxicants coming from inside the Camaro.
. The officer returned to his squad car and ran a standard computer check on the defendant and the Camaro. The check yielded nothing of interest, and the officer returned to the driver's side window. The officer again smelled the strong odor of intoxicants. He asked the defendant to step out of the car and inquired whether he had been drinking. The defendant replied that he was a bartender at a tavern and had drunk three beers earlier in the evening. The officer asked the defendant to submit to field sobriety tests, and he agreed.
. Officer Drayna had received training on OWI detection, and during his six years with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department he had made over 200 OWI arrests. His training was based in part on a field sobriety test manual developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
. The first test he administered was the alphabet test. The defendant was able to recite the alphabet correctly. At no time during the test or throughout their conversations did the officer observe the defendant's speech to be slurred.
. The next test was the one-legged stand. The offi
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