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State v. Collins6/29/2005
Background
This case comes to us on a pre-trial interlocutory appeal. The facts contained in the limited record are as follows.
On September 28, 2000, defendant Patrick Collins ("Collins") was stopped for speeding in Davidson County, Tennessee. After subjecting Collins to a number of field sobriety tests, the arresting officer determined that Collins was intoxicated. The officer then read Collins a standard script, issued by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department ("Metro"), advising Collins:
There are reasonable grounds to believe you were driving or in physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. I hereby request you to submit to a breath alcohol test. You will be informed of the results and then have the right to a blood test at your own expense. You have the right to refuse this test. However, according to Tennessee state law, if you do, you will be charged with violating the implied consent law and, if the court finds you in violation of this law, then the court will suspend your license for one year. Do you understand? Will you take the breath test?
Collins did not take the breath test. He was subsequently indicted for driving under the influence of an intoxicant ("DUI") in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-401 (2000). The State also sought to suspend Collins' license as a penalty for his failure to take the breath test pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-406 (2000).
Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-406(a)(1) provides that anyone driving a motor vehicle in this state "is deemed to have given consent to a test for the purpose of determining the alcoholic or drug content of that person's blood." This "implied consent" statute provides that refusal to submit to such a test subjects the driver to revocation of his license. See State v. Turner, 913 S.W.2d 158, 159-60 (Tenn. 1995). The statute further provides that "if the driver was not advised of the consequences of such refusal," a court may not suspend his license. Tenn. Code. Ann. § 55-10-406(a)(2).
Prior to 2000, the statutory revocation period was one year. As amended effective July 1, 2000, section 55-10-406(a)(3) provides for revocation periods of between one and five years. The revocation period is two years if the driver was previously convicted of, inter alia, driving under the influence . Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-10-406(a)(3)(B) (2000). Collins had a prior conviction for driving under the influence and so, under section 55-10-406(a)(3)(B), he was subject to a two-year suspension for refusing to take the alcohol test. However, although Collins was arrested nearly three months after the July 2000 amendments took effect, Metro's standard script had not been revised to conform to the amendments. The arresting officer therefore stated to Collins that he was only subject to a one-year suspension for refusing to take the breath test.
Because the arresting officer had read him an incorrect advisory statement, Collins moved prior to trial to strike the implied consent charge and bar the State from attempting to revoke his license. Collins also sought to bar the State from arguing to the jury on the DUI charge that he refused to submit to a breath test knowing that he would lose his driver's license by refusal.
The trial court ruled that the State did not sufficiently inform Collins of the consequences of his refusal to take the breath test because Collins was informed that the consequence was a one-year, rather than a two-year, suspension. The trial court therefore ruled that the State could not seek penalties under the implied consent law. Reasoning that the statement of rights r
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