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Snyder v. State9/28/2001
No. 5480
EASTAUGH, Justice, concurring.
BRYNER, Justice, concurring.
I. INTRODUCTION
Dennis Snyder was convicted of driving while intoxicated and refusal to take a breath alcohol test, but in a previous decision we determined that Snyder's due process rights were violated by the police's failure to allow Snyder to obtain an independent blood alcohol test. We reversed and remanded both criminal convictions, instructing the lower court to presume that the results of such a blood test would have been favorable to Snyder. In a separate proceeding arising from the same incident, the Department of Public Safety revoked Snyder's driver's license for refusal to take a breath alcohol test. Snyder now argues that the license revocation should be reversed, claiming in part that the presumption that he would have passed a blood test should have precluded the hearing officer from finding that he refused the breath test. Because the hearing officer's conclusion that Snyder refused a breath test would not have been affected by the presumption that Snyder would have passed a blood test, we affirm the revocation of his license.
II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
A. Facts
In March 1993 an Alaska State Trooper found Dennis Snyder, apparently intoxicated, trying to extricate his car from a snow berm. Snyder's subsequent failure to complete a breath alcohol test resulted in two legal actions: a criminal case and the revocation of license case now before us. We considered Snyder's appeal of his criminal convictions for driving while intoxicated (DWI) and refusing to submit to a breath test (refusal) in Snyder v. State (Snyder I) in 1996. The following facts are reproduced from that opinion:
On the night of March 20, 1993, Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Charles Lovejoy found Snyder in his car, which had slid into a snow berm at an intersection. According to Lovejoy, Snyder did not appear to have been injured in the mishap and did not complain of pain. Lovejoy suspected that Snyder had been drinking and therefore administered a number of field sobriety tests. He then placed Snyder under arrest for DWI.
Alaska State Trooper Dixie Spencer drove Snyder from the scene of the arrest to the police station. While driving to the station, Snyder requested that Spencer take him to a nearby hospital for a blood test of his alcohol level. Spencer refused this request, believing that an arrestee was required to submit to a breath test before a blood test could be administered.
At the station, Spencer asked Snyder to take a breath test by blowing into the Intoximeter machine. Snyder made four purported attempts to blow into the machine. However, despite Spencer having twice read the implied consent warnings to Snyder, and despite Spencer's repeated instructions to Snyder about how to blow into the machine's tube and how long to sustain his breath, Snyder never provided an adequate breath sample.
After Snyder had thrice blown unsuccessfully into the tube, Spencer advised him that he could try "one more time." When Snyder again failed to provide an adequate breath sample, Spencer told him, "All right, Dennis, we'll just charge you with refusal." Snyder objected [, claiming that he had followed instructions and blown into the Intoximeter, but that the machine was broken.] He then offered to take the test again: "I'll blow again, . . . It's not over, one more time." Spencer had already pressed the print button on the Intoximeter; a further test would have required a five-minute wait. Spencer terminated the session and charged Snyder with DWI and Refusal. A short time later Snyder again requested a blood test; t
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