State v. Chavez9/14/2004
A jury found appellant Max Valencia Chavez guilty of four felony counts of aggravated driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUI) based alternately on his revoked driver's license and his two prior DUI convictions. The trial court placed him on five years' probation and imposed four months' imprisonment as a condition of his probation. Chavez appeals, claiming the trial court should have granted his pretrial motion to dismiss the charges against him or alternatively to suppress evidence, based on what he alleges was an improper citizen's arrest under A.R.S. § 13-3884(1). We hold that DUI is an offense amounting to a breach of the peace, justifying the citizen's arrest effected in this case, and we therefore affirm the convictions.
2 Motions to dismiss are committed to the sound discretion of the trial court, and we will not disturb the denial of such a motion absent an abuse of the court's discretion. State v. Hansen, 156 Ariz. 291, 294, 751 P.2d 951, 954 (1988). We review a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence using the same standard. State v. Spears, 184 Ariz. 277, 284, 908 P.2d 1062, 1069 (1996). We view the facts and evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the trial court's ruling, but we review questions of law de novo. State v. Sanchez, 200 Ariz. 163, 5, 24 P.3d 610, 612 (App.2001).
3 The four charges against Chavez arose from a single incident. On the night of August 20, 1999, a tribal ranger [FN1] patrolling the San Xavier Indian Reservation observed Chavez driving erratically on South Mission Road. When Ranger Corella first saw Chavez's truck, it was completely stopped in the roadway. Corella pulled to within eight feet of the truck and sat with his lights on, watching, for approximately two minutes.
FN1. As we discuss below, Ranger Corella did not have specific legal authority as a ranger to arrest Chavez for DUI. Thus, the legal issue presented is whether the arrest was proper as a citizen's arrest pursuant to A.R.S. § 13-3884.
4 The truck then began to move, and Corella followed it as it proceeded southbound. He observed Chavez driving slowly, weaving, stopping, starting, and continuing to veer on and off the shoulder of the road. Concerned for the safety of other motorists, Corella radioed his dispatcher to send a tribal police officer. When Ranger Corella finally activated his vehicle's emergency lights, Chavez stopped his truck briefly in the roadway, then resumed his erratic driving for another four-tenths of a mile. Eventually Chavez pulled over and stopped on the shoulder of the road. Soon after, he opened the passenger door of his truck, got out, and ran into the desert.
*1095 5 Ignoring Corella's command to stop, Chavez continued running. As he ran up an incline, he lost his balance and fell forward into a prickly pear cactus. When Chavez got up, covered with cactus spines, Corella placed him in handcuffs. Corella did so, he testified, for his own safety because he did not know why Chavez had tried to run away from him. He then noted Chavez was slurring his speech and emanating an odor of alcohol. After an eight- to twelve-minute wait, a tribal police officer arrived and took custody of Chavez.
6 Before trial, Chavez moved to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress evidence obtained following his arrest. He claimed his detention and arrest were illegal because Ranger Corella, who was not a certified Arizona peace officer, see A.R.S. §§ 41-1822, 41-1823, lacked authority to detain him. According to Corella, his official duties as a ranger include patrolling the 77,000-acre San Xavier reservation with responsibility for protecting wildlife and enforcing both environmental laws and trespassing laws. Rangers are unarmed, uncertified, and not co
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