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Lopez v. Director8/28/2000
eld that the anticipatory search warrant in that case was invalid, and that the exclusionary rule prohibited evidence obtained as a result of that search warrant from being used in the defendant's criminal trial. Canelo, 139 N.H. at 382-88, 653 A.2d at 1102-05. The trial court in this case concluded that because no subsequent case limited Canelo to criminal matters, the plaintiff could claim the protection of the exclusionary rule in any case of alleged police misconduct. We disagree.
The United States Supreme Court, when called upon to interpret federal law, has specifically limited the exclusionary rule to criminal trials. Persons involved in other proceedings such as probation and parole violation hearings, grand jury matters, and civil tax cases, for example, cannot invoke the exclusionary rule under the Fourth Amendment. See Pennsylvania Bd. of Probation and Parole v. Scott, 524 U.S. 357, 363-64 (1998). We see no reason to apply the rule to ALS hearings. Other state courts have held that the results of a blood alcohol test found inadmissible in a criminal proceeding may nevertheless be used to revoke a person's driver's license. See Wiebenga v. Dept. of Transp., 530 N.W.2d 732 (Iowa 1995). In Powell v. Secretary of State, 614 A.2d 1303, 1306-07 (Me. 1992), the Maine Supreme Judicial Court held that evidence obtained as a result of a constitutionally invalid stop would not be excluded at a civil administrative license suspension hearing under the exclusionary rule.
Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the superior court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.
NADEAU and DALIANIS, JJ., concurred; GRAY, J., retired superior court justice, and GROFF, J., superior court justice, specially assigned under RSA 490:3, concurred.
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