Harrison v. Commissioner of Public Safety

781 N.W.2d 918, 2010 Minn. App. LEXIS 66, 2010 WL 1753322
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedMay 4, 2010
DocketA09-1419
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 781 N.W.2d 918 (Harrison v. Commissioner of Public Safety) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harrison v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 781 N.W.2d 918, 2010 Minn. App. LEXIS 66, 2010 WL 1753322 (Mich. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

STONEBURNER, Judge.

In this consolidated appeal, appellant challenges decisions of the district court sustaining two separate revocations of his driver’s license. Appellant argues that after his lawfully-obtained blood sample was preserved, the warrantless testing of the sample for its alcohol concentration violated his federal and state constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches. Appellant asserts that the district court in each case erred by failing to suppress evidence of his alcohol concentration as the fruit of an illegal search, and erred by sustaining the license revocations that were based on the illegally obtained evidence.

FACTS

In early 2009, appellant Jesse Wayne Harrison was arrested for driving while impaired (DWI) on two separate occasions and was asked to consent to testing under the implied-consent law. On each occasion, Harrison consented to a blood test to determine his alcohol concentration. Harrison was, on each occasion, transported to a hospital where a blood sample was drawn. Harrison was cooperative during both incidents, and he concedes that the blood samples were lawfully seized.

The samples were analyzed to determine Harrison’s alcohol concentration. The results of each test indicated an alcohol concentration over the legal limit. The Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety revoked Harrison’s driver’s license under the implied-consent law in each case. Harrison challenged the license revocations, arguing that the alcohol-concentration evidence in each case was inadmissible because testing the preserved blood samples for their alcohol concentration without a warrant constituted an unreasonable search, in violation of his constitutional rights. In each case, the district court sustained the license revocation, concluding that because Harrison’s blood was lawfully seized, a warrant was not required for the subsequent testing. This appeal follows.

ISSUE

Does the warrantless testing for alcohol concentration in a blood sample, which was lawfully obtained from a person under the implied-consent law, constitute an illegal search under the United States or Minnesota Constitutions?

ANALYSIS

I. Our standard of review is de novo.

A proceeding to challenge the revocation of a driver’s license under the *920 implied-consent statute is civil in nature, not criminal. State v. Dumas, 587 N.W.2d 299, 303 (Minn.App.1998), review denied (Minn. Feb. 24, 1999). Harrison’s challenge to the license revocations is based only on his assertion of violation of his rights to be free of unreasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 10, of the Minnesota Constitution. Because Harrison raises only a question of law, our review is de novo. See Shane v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 587 N.W.2d 639, 641 (Minn.1998) (stating that, where the facts of a case are undisputed, questions of law are reviewed de novo).

II. The exclusionary rule applies to implied-consent proceedings.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, in relevant part, that the right of the people to be secure in their persons against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue without probable cause. Article I, Section 10, of the Minnesota Constitution contains a parallel provision. Generally, evidence seized in violation of the constitution is inadmissible for criminal prosecution in a court of law. State v. Jackson, 742 N.W.2d 163, 177-78 (Minn.2007) (citing Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 398, 34 S.Ct. 341, 346, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914) and Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 648, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 1686-87, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961)). The exclusionary rule has been applied to implied-consent license-revocation proceedings. See, e.g., Haase v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 679 N.W.2d 743, 748 (Minn.App.2004) (concluding that an officer’s warrantless entry into Haase’s garage was an unreasonable search and that district court erred by declining to suppress evidence seized pursuant to the warrantless entry, and reversing the district court’s order sustaining revocation of Haase’s driver’s license).

“It is a basic principle of constitutional law that warrantless searches are presumptively unreasonable.” State v. Shriner, 751 N.W.2d 538, 541 (Minn.2008) (citing State v. Licari, 659 N.W.2d 243, 250 (Minn.2003)). Because reasonableness is the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment, there are several exceptions to this rule. Id. (citing Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398, 403, 126 S.Ct. 1943, 1947, 164 L.Ed.2d 650 (2006)). Among the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement is a search conducted because of exigent circumstances. State v. Hatton, 389 N.W.2d 229, 232 (Minn.App.1986) (citing Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357-58, 88 S.Ct. 507, 514-15, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967)), review denied (Minn. Aug. 13, 1986).

Both the United States Supreme Court and the Minnesota Supreme Court have recognized the validity of the application of the exigent-circumstances exception to alcohol testing for impaired driving. See Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 770, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 1835, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966) (“[T]he delay necessary to obtain a warrant ... threaten[s] the destruction of evidence.”), Shriner, 751 N.W.2d at 549-50 (“[The] rapid, natural dissipation of alcohol in the blood creates single-factor exigent circumstances that will justify the police taking a warrantless, nonconsensual blood draw from a defendant, provided that the police have probable cause to believe that defendant committed criminal vehicular homicide or operation.”). In State v. Net-land, the Minnesota Supreme Court specifically held that “under the exigency exception, no warrant is necessary to secure a blood-alcohol test where there is probable cause to suspect a crime in which chemical impairment is an element of the offense.” 762 N.W.2d 202, 214 (Minn. *921 2009).

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Bluebook (online)
781 N.W.2d 918, 2010 Minn. App. LEXIS 66, 2010 WL 1753322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harrison-v-commissioner-of-public-safety-minnctapp-2010.