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Snyder v. State3/15/2002
No. 5551
I. INTRODUCTION
After an administrative hearing, the Division of Motor Vehicles revoked Dennis Snyder's driver's license on the ground that Snyder had driven with a blood alcohol level exceeding the legal limit. Snyder appealed to the superior court, which remanded for reconsideration because the division's hearing officer had misapplied the applicable burden of proof. On remand, a different hearing officer reviewed the record and reaffirmed the original ruling; but the new officer reached this decision by finding that Snyder had not been truthful in certain portions of his testimony that the original hearing officer had found to be truthful. The superior court affirmed the second ruling. We reverse, concluding that due process precluded the new hearing officer from revising the original officer's assessment of testimonial credibility without giving Snyder advance notice of the case's reassignment and an opportunity to re-present live testimony.
II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
In March 1996 Alaska State Trooper Jacob D. Baergen responded to a report of a car blocking traffic at an intersection near North Pole. Upon arrival, Trooper Baergen saw Dennis Snyder standing in the intersection; his car was stuck in the snowbank at the side of the roadway. Snyder said that he had driven the car into the snowbank to avoid hitting another car, but his description of the incident did not comport with the car's resting position. Trooper Baergen noted that Snyder had a strong odor of alcohol about him, his eyes were watery and bloodshot, his speech was slurred, and his balance unsteady. The accident appeared to have happened shortly before the trooper's arrival, and Snyder said nothing to indicate that he had left the scene afterwards.
Based on these observations, Trooper Baergen asked Snyder to perform "a standard set of field sobriety tests, all of which he failed." The trooper then performed a preliminary breath test and arrested Snyder for DWI after obtaining a result of .155. When a subsequent Intoximeter 3000 test yielded a result of .147, Snyder was charged with DWI and issued a notice of administrative license revocation.
Snyder contested the administrative revocation. At a hearing before DMV Hearing Officer Joy Gifford, Snyder denied consuming any alcohol before the accident. He testified that the accident actually occurred more than two hours before Trooper Baergen's arrival. According to Snyder, the accident scene was about a mile or a mile and a half from his house. Snyder did not have a telephone but he used the phone of a next-door neighbor, Michael Scott. Snyder thus decided to walk to Scott's house from the accident scene in order to summon help. He claimed that, after arriving at Scott's and calling a friend in Fairbanks for help, he accepted Scott's invitation to have some beer; over the next hour or hour and a half, he visited with Scott and drank three to five beers. Snyder testified that he then walked back to the accident scene, arriving just before Trooper Baergen. Scott also testified at the revocation hearing and essentially confirmed Snyder's version of events.
At the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing, Snyder's counsel argued that Snyder's blood alcohol level at the time of the accident did not exceed the legal limit because the tests that Trooper Baergen conducted reflected alcohol consumed after the accident. In addressing this argument, Hearing Officer Gifford expressly found that the testimony concerning Snyder's post-accident consumption was credible, noting that the only conflict appeared to be when and how much post-accident drinking actually occurred. Referring to "common knowledge" and t
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