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State v. Whaley5/21/2003
the appellant. The appellant seemed agitated. Officer Martin tried to get the appellant to admit that she had not been driving the vehicle. Randles saw Officer Martin "raise up," grab the appellant's arm, and tell her that she might start talking if he stuck her in a cell with the men. Randles saw the appellant's "hand come across," striking Officer Martin. Officer Martin informed the appellant that he would charge her for assaulting an officer.
Next, the appellant testified in her own defense. She asserted that she was a single mother of a seventeen-year-old son and that she was an interior designer and owner of an office furniture business. She noted that the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department was a customer of her office furniture business. The appellant maintained that on the night of December 9, 1998, she and Randles ate dinner, watched her son's concert, and went drinking. She admitted that both she and Randles were too intoxicated to drive.
When she and Randles observed blue lights behind them, Randles parked his mother's vehicle on the curb of a side street. Randles turned off the vehicle and removed the keys from the ignition. Both she and Randles opened their doors to disengage the seatbelts. The appellant noted that the seatbelts would not disengage any other way. She maintained that the vehicle was not running when Randles exited the vehicle.
The appellant testified that after Randles got out of the Ford Tempo, she got behind the steering wheel. Officer Martin approached the vehicle and asked the appellant what she was doing. The appellant looked up and responded, "Driving?" Officer Martin instructed the appellant to get out of the vehicle and she stumbled when exiting. The appellant asserted that she refused to perform any field sobriety tests because she knew she would fail them. She also acknowledged that she refused to take a "breathalyzer" test or to sign an implied consent form.
The appellant explained that because of her business connection with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department, she was aware that the police could confiscate the vehicle of a multiple DUI offender. The appellant further noted that she was aware that Randles was a multiple DUI offender. Accordingly, the appellant contended that she slid behind the steering wheel and claimed to be driving so that the police would not "go back and get Ms. Randles's car and confiscate it and sell it at auction. . . . I could not tell Ms. Randles that we lost her car because me and Michael were out acting foolish." The appellant admitted that she had lied about driving the vehicle.
The appellant asserted that Officer Martin took her to the booking area of the jail and began pressuring her to admit that she had not been driving the vehicle. The appellant refused to admit she was not driving. The appellant claimed that Officer Martin grabbed her and dragged her towards the holding cells, threatening that she would start to talk if he put her in the men's cell. The appellant slipped out of Officer Martin's grip and when he attempted to grab her again, she "smacked him in the face." Officer Martin told the appellant that she had just assaulted an officer.
Based upon the foregoing proof, the appellant was convicted of DUI and assault. At the sentencing hearing, the trial court observed that the appellant had a history of alcohol related offenses. Accordingly, the court imposed a sentence of eleven months and twenty-nine days for the DUI conviction and a six month sentence for the assault conviction. The court further ordered the appellant to serve sixty days of her DUI sentence in confinement, and allowed the appellant to receive "2 for 1 credit," effectively reducing the
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