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State v. Warriner2/20/2004
Waldo F. Warriner appeals from his conviction and sentence for driving under the influence of alcohol. The issue presented in this appeal is whether Warriner violated the Nebraska Rules of the Road, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-601 et seq. (Reissue 1998 & Supp. 2001), by driving his pickup truck with the hazard lights activated.
BACKGROUND
The facts surrounding Warriner's arrest are undisputed. Wallace Holz, a Bloomfield, Nebraska, city police officer, was at the Bloomfield police station in the early morning hours of April 10, 2002, when he saw a pickup truck pass his office with its hazard lights activated. Holz left the office and pursued the truck in his police vehicle. While pursuing the truck, Holz saw the truck weaving within its lane; however, Holz was unable to testify at trial whether the weaving occurred before or after the truck left the city limits of Bloomfield. Holz caught up to and stopped the truck about half a mile outside Bloomfield and identified the driver as Warriner. Holz observed Warriner and suspected that Warriner was under the influence of alcohol. Warriner was arrested, and a subsequent blood test revealed a blood alcohol content of .268 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
Warriner was charged in the county court on April 25, 2002, with driving under the influence , a Class W misdemeanor. Warriner entered a plea of not guilty and filed a motion to suppress evidence resulting from the stop of his vehicle, on the basis that the stop was not based upon reasonable suspicion. On October 28, the county court overruled Warriner's motion to suppress. Warriner was found guilty of driving under the influence and sentenced accordingly. Warriner appealed to the district court, which affirmed the judgment of the county court. Warriner appeals.
ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR
Warriner assigns that the county court erred in failing to sustain (1) his motion to suppress and (2) his objection at trial to evidence gathered from the stop of his pickup truck.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
In reviewing a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence, ultimate determinations of reasonable suspicion are reviewed de novo by an appellate court, while findings of historical fact are reviewed for clear error, giving due weight to the inferences drawn from those facts by the trial judge. State v. Lee, 265 Neb. 663, 658 N.W.2d 669 (2003).
[2,3] The meaning of a statute is a question of law. State v. Loyd, 265 Neb. 232, 655 N.W.2d 703 (2003). On a question of law, an appellate court is obligated to reach a conclusion independent of the determination reached by the court below. State v. Mata, 266 Neb. 668, 668 N.W.2d 448 (2003).
ANALYSIS
Warriner argues that the evidence against him is the fruit of an illegal seizure, because, according to Warriner, Holz did not have reasonable suspicion, while inside the city limits of Bloomfield, to pursue and detain Warriner. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-215(2)(b) (Cum. Supp. 2002) provides that a police officer, if in a fresh attempt to apprehend a person suspected of committing a misdemeanor or a traffic infraction, may follow such person anywhere in an area within twenty-five miles of the boundaries of the law enforcement officer's primary jurisdiction and there arrest and detain such person and return such person to the law enforcement officer's primary jurisdiction[.]
The only ground for suspicion that Warriner had committed a misdemeanor or a traffic infraction, that the record shows to have indisputably occurred within the city limits of Bloomfield, is his operation of his truck with its hazard lights activated. If Warriner's use of his h
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