 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
State v. Coffee2/12/2004
ystagmus. Coffee did display a lack of convergence during the eye test.
Next, Officer Dowkin conducted the divided attention tests to evaluate if Coffee was able to operate a vehicle in a safe manner. Officer Dowkin was taught that marijuana can significantly impair an individual's ability to divide his/her attention between tasks. Officer Dowkin testified that "[d]riving an automobile requires that a person divide their attention amongst many tasks while driving, such as operating the gas, brake, maintaining awareness of the surroundings, monitoring their speed, and basically controlling their vehicle."
Officer Dowkin administered to Coffee the Romberg balance test, which checks a person's internal body clock. During this test, Officer Dowkin noted that Coffee swayed to maintain balance and experienced severe eyelid and body tremors. During the walk-and-turn test, she lost her balance, missed heel-to-toe steps, stepped off the line, raised her arms, and took too many steps. Throughout the one-leg stand test, Coffee swayed while balancing, used her arms to balance, hopped, put her foot down, and experienced body and leg tremors. While taking the fingertip-to-nose test, Coffee missed her nose on all six attempts. A circular body sway and severe eyelid and body tremors were noted.
**1005 *196 After administering these tests, Officer Dowkin took Coffee's blood pressure, temperature, and a second pulse reading, which were all above the normal range. Officer Dowkin testified that he had been taught that an elevated pulse and blood pressure typically indicate the possible use of cannabis.
Officer Dowkin took Coffee into a dark room to test her pupils, which were abnormal under darkness and indirect light tests and which presented rebound dilation under direct light conditions (a condition synonymous with the cannabis category). Officer Dowkin checked Coffee's nasal passages, which were clear. While checking inside her mouth, Officer Dowkin noted that the rear portion of her tongue had a slight green tint, which can be associated with the use of marijuana. Officer Dowkin noted her muscle tone was near normal and there were no injection sites. A third check of Coffee's pulse indicated that it was on the higher end of the normal range.
Based on the totality of his evaluation, Officer Dowkin was of the opinion that Coffee was under the influence of cannabis and could not safely operate her vehicle. Officer Dowkin read Coffee the implied consent form and her Miranda rights, at which time she indicated that she would answer his questions. Coffee stated that the last time she had smoked marijuana was a week prior, but she had been in the presence of others smoking marijuana that day. Coffee signed a form consenting to take a urine test, and a female officer took the sample.
The urine sample was sent to Clinical Laboratories of Hawai'i and placed in a locked refrigerator. Michael Lau (Lau), a medical lab technologist, testified that on July 16, 1998 he evaluated Coffee's urine specimen. Lau checked to make sure the bag was intact, chain of custody had been properly filled in, the container was properly sealed and not tampered with, and matched the container to the chain of custody. He prepared a photometric multi-analyzer to perform a general screening on the urine, which showed a reaction to the cannabinol reagent. Lau verified the finding by screening a second sample and then placed the remaining specimen in a refrigerator for a second testing.
Cynthia Morrison (Morrison), a toxicologist, testified that she performed a chemical extraction to remove the drugs from Coffee's specimen. Running the extract through a mass spectrometer, Morrison found that it was positive for 209 nanograms per millimeter of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the che
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hawaii DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|