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State ex rel Town of Portsmouth v. Hagan4/1/2003
This case is before the Supreme Court on a petition for a writ of certiorari by the petitioner, the State of Rhode Island ex rel. Town of Portsmouth (state or petitioner), seeking review of a District Court order in favor of the respondent, Joseph H. Hagan (Hagan or respondent) that suppressed evidence of a Breathalyzer test and police observations obtained outside the jurisdiction of the Portsmouth Police Department. This Court issued the writ and stayed the District Court proceedings so that this issue could be resolved before trial.
The essential facts are not in dispute. On May 11, 2001, members of the Portsmouth Police Department arrested Hagan for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and took him to the Portsmouth police station. Hagan agreed to submit to a chemical test while in custody at the station; however officer Steven E. Sullivan (Sullivan), a certified chemical test operator, detected an error in the operation of the Breathalyzer machine.*fn1 Upon notifying his supervisor of the malfunction, Sullivan was instructed to contact the neighboring Middletown Police Department and take respondent to Middletown in order to use that department's Breathalyzer machine.*fn2 Once in Middletown, Sullivan conducted a two-phase test of respondent's blood alcohol concentration. Based on the results of this test, Hagan was charged, pursuant to G.L. 1956 § 31-27-2, with driving under the influence of liquor, first offense; his Breathalyzer readings exceeded 0.15.
Before trial, respondent filed several motions, including a motion to suppress the Breathalyzer test results and testimony concerning police observations made of respondent outside the territorial limits of Portsmouth.*fn3 The respondent sought the exclusion of this evidence on the ground that the Breathalyzer test of his blood alcohol level constituted a seizure of evidence during an unlawful arrest in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article 1, section 6, of the Rhode Island Constitution. Hagan alleged that the Portsmouth police had no authority to retain custody of him after crossing the town line into Middletown and the incriminating Breathalyzer results should be suppressed at trial as fruits of an unlawful custodial detention. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial judge agreed with respondent's contentions and suppressed the evidence. He based his decision on a finding that the Portsmouth police, while acting in good faith, exceeded their lawful authority, and therefore, the Breathalyzer results and other evidence obtained outside the jurisdiction of the Portsmouth Police Department was inadmissible.*fn4 Furthermore, he found that no emergency existed in this case, and that the Portsmouth police had failed to exhaust the reasonable testing alternatives available to them before taking Hagan to Middletown.
The trial judge afforded petitioner time to seek review in this Court and, two days before trial was scheduled to commence, a petition for certiorari was filed and a stay of all proceedings was requested. On October 25, 2001, this Court granted the stay and subsequently issued the writ.
Before this Court, petitioner argued that at all times pertinent to this litigation, Hagan's constitutional rights were not violated. Furthermore, the state asserts that suppression of the results of a Breathalyzer test under the circumstances of this case is unwarranted, notwithstanding any alleged constitutional violation, based upon Hagan's consent to be tested, and his ultimate acquiescence to the test in Middletown. The state maintains that Hagan's consent constitutes a waiver of his right to object to the admissibility of the test results on jurisdictional grounds. The state asks
Page 1 2 3 4 Rhode Island DUI Attorneys
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