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State v. Wyatt8/16/1984
[67 Haw Page 295] Three questions are presented in this appeal by the State of Hawaii from an order suppressing evidence in a prosecution brought against Jacqueline L. Wyatt for Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicating Liquor in violation of Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 291-4 and Possessing Intoxicating Liquor While Operating a Motor Vehicle on a Public Street in violation of HRS § 291-3.1. They are: (1) whether the roadside questioning of the defendant after she had been stopped for a traffic violation constituted custodial interrogation for purposes of applying the Miranda rule; (2) whether the results of sobriety tests administered to the defendant were excludable as evidence on grounds that "neither probable cause nor reasonable grounds" existed for the administration
of such tests; and (3) whether the seizure of evidence from the passenger compartment of her automobile was unreasonable because it was preceded by a flashlight-aided scan of the compartment. Unlike the District Court of the First Circuit, we conclude from a review of the record and relevant precepts of criminal jurisprudence that the questions call for answers in the negative. Thus, we set aside the district court's suppression order and remand the case for trial.
I.
While standing on a sidewalk abutting Kalakaua Avenue near midnight on March 13, 1983, Officers Main and Todt of the Honolulu Police Department observed an automobile, an MG convertible with its top down, being driven without lighted headlamps. Officer Main thus directed the driver, Jacqueline L. Wyatt, to drive the vehicle to the curb. When she did so, the officer asked her to produce her driver's license, the vehicle's registration certificate, and her no-fault insurance card. While she rummaged through her purse for those documents, Officer Main became aware of a smell of intoxicating liquor emanating from the passenger
compartment of the automobile. So he asked if she had been drinking, which she readily admitted. She told him she had a drink earlier that night and then volunteered she had been cited for three traffic violations a few minutes earlier. At this juncture, the officer ordered her to alight from the car and proceeded to administer a field sobriety test. When it indicated she might have been driving while under the influence of intoxicants, she was arrested for violating HRS § 291-4.
Meanwhile, Officer Todt, who had been directing traffic around the parked convertible, approached the vehicle's left rear and noticed a green bottle behind the driver's seat. He used his flashlight to obtain a better view of the passenger compartment and saw two empty bottles he instantly recognized as containers of a particular brand of beer, Moosehead. Looking further with the aid of the flashlight, he saw what appeared to be a bottle of vodka, half-full, between the two front seats. By then, Officer Main had arrested the defendant and directed her to a police car for transport to the police station.
Officer Todt continued to scan the passenger compartment after the defendant had been ordered from her vehicle and found two open Diet Pepsi cans smelling of alcohol and another empty Moosehead beer bottle. He seized all of the beverage containers. And when the defendant was booked at the police station, she was also charged with possessing opened containers of intoxicating liquors while operating a motor vehicle on a public street.
Prior to trial the defendant move
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