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State v. Wiggin8/26/2004
The defendant, John D. Wiggin, was convicted after a bench trial in the Henniker District Court (Scheffy, J.) of driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor. See RSA 265:82, I(a) (Supp. 2003). He appeals the court's denial of his motions to suppress and to dismiss. We affirm.
The record of the hearing supports the following facts. On February 2, 2003, at approximately 1:30 a.m., Henniker Police Officer Neal Martin responded to a burglar alarm call from a market. Upon arriving at the market, he parked in front and began investigating the cause for the alarm. He initially checked the front and side doors of the market but found nothing that would have activated the alarm. Because it had snowed sporadically that night, leaving snow and slush on the ground, he looked for tracks in the parking lot but found none.
The building housing the market also contained a restaurant, which was about to close. The officer questioned the restaurant patrons and employees as to whether they knew of any cause for the alarm, but none did. Not yet having found the cause, the officer called the owner of the market, sat in his cruiser facing the storefront to keep an eye on it, and waited for the owner to arrive.
While waiting in his unmarked cruiser, the officer saw the defendant's car drive around to the back of the building and park near a dumpster. He realized that this was not the owner of the market, and he followed the car around the building. He parked his cruiser behind the already stopped car and, to identify himself as a police officer, flashed his blue lights.
The officer, who was in uniform, approached the car, and the defendant rolled down his window. When the officer requested the defendant's identification, he immediately noted an odor of alcohol, as well as the defendant's bloodshot, glassy eyes and flushed face. The officer asked the defendant to step out of the car to perform five field sobriety tests (FSTs), which the defendant failed.
Based upon Officer Martin's observations and training, he determined that the defendant was "impaired" by alcohol, placed him under arrest, and transported him to the Henniker police station. At the station, Officer Martin explained to the defendant his administrative license suspension rights and requested that he take a breathalyzer test. The defendant refused the test and was charged with driving under the influence. See id.
During trial, the defendant moved to suppress all evidence, arguing that he was seized in violation of his State and federal constitutional rights. Further, at the close of the State's case, the defendant moved to dismiss the charges, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of guilt. The court denied both motions and found the defendant guilty. See id. This appeal followed.
Concerning his motion to suppress, the defendant argues that he was seized upon the activation of the officer's blue lights, and that his seizure was unconstitutional pursuant to the protections of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution as well as Part I, Article 19 of the State Constitution. Specifically, he argues that "the seizure was not based on a reasonable articulable suspicion that he had committed a crime."
Both parties agree that the officer's actions constituted a seizure of the defendant. Whether the defendant was seized at the moment the officer activated the blue lights, however, is irrelevant because the defendant was already parked, and nothing is alleged to have happened between the time that the officer flashed his blue lights and the time when the defendant rolled down his window to speak to the officer. The more relevant issue is whether the seizure w
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