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People v. Hennessey9/30/2002
A jury convicted Margaret Hennessey of driving under the influence of alcohol and offering a bribe to a police officer, and found she willfully refused to submit to chemical testing. She admitted a prior DUI conviction. Defendant complains of Miranda and instructional error, prosecutorial misconduct, and the insufficiency of the evidence to support the drunk driving conviction. None of these contentions has merit and we affirm.
I.
Newport Beach Police Officer Glen Garrity stopped defendant's Porsche Boxster around 3:00 a.m. on June 26, 2000, because the car's headlights were off. Defendant appeared intoxicated, and Garrity asked her to leave the car. She did so with a "slow-moving hesitancy," using the door to support herself, and swayed slightly as she stood next to her car. She explained she was in an embarrassing situation: Her passenger was not her husband, and she was on her way back to the passenger's apartment. Garrity smelled alcohol on defendant's breath and noticed her face was flushed. An eye (nystagmus) test also indicated intoxication. In response to questioning, defendant admitted she had consumed two vodka drinks earlier that evening. Defendant performed poorly on the field sobriety tests, and Garrity arrested her for driving under the influence of alcohol. She then advised Garrity she was married to a senator's grandson, the incident would prove embarrassing, and offered $1,000 if he did not arrest her. Garrity placed defendant in the patrol car and drove toward the police station, in the same direction as her residence. Thinking the officer was taking her home, defendant remarked Garrity "was saving her a lot of trouble . . . embarrassment." She motioned him to change lanes as they approached her apartment. Garrity ignored her and continued driving toward the police station. Defendant became hostile, called Garrity names and said he "blew it," exclaiming, "$1,000 is now going to go to the court when you could have had it." At the station, she initially consented to a blood test, but refused when the technician arrived.
Defendant's passenger, Walid Lodin, testified he met defendant and her friend earlier that night outside a Newport Beach bar. He invited the pair to his home "to come over to either sober up or do whatever . . . ." The trio walked to Lodin's residence and defendant declined Lodin's offer of a drink. Concerned about her car, she and Lodin walked back to the parking lot 30 minutes later. Lodin thought she could drive safely, but they were pulled over on their way back to Lodin's residence. Lodin did not think she was under the influence but in a pretrial interview conceded she might have been "borderline" intoxicated.
Defendant's husband bought the Porsche for his wife two weeks before the arrest. Before that she drove a 2000 Corvette, which had headlights that came on automatically at dark.
In a 1994 incident, Orange County Deputy Sheriff Russell Chilton arrested defendant for hit and run and furnishing false information to a police officer. Defendant also had an outstanding warrant. Chilton informed defendant of the charges and placed her in the patrol car. She offered to pay Chilton and two other officers $300 each if they would let her go.
II.
Defendant contends the statements she made to Garrity as he drove past her home were obtained in violation of Miranda. Garrity's actions, we are told, were the functional equivalent of an interrogation. "Garrity reasonably knew or should have known that by electing to drive right past defendant's home, he was likely to illicit an incriminating statement from her . . . ." We disagree.
At a pretrial suppression hearing, Garrit
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