Krause v. State

405 S.W.3d 82, 2013 WL 1890731, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 743
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 8, 2013
DocketNo. PD-0819-12
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 405 S.W.3d 82 (Krause v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Krause v. State, 405 S.W.3d 82, 2013 WL 1890731, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 743 (Tex. 2013).

Opinions

KELLER, P.J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court

in which JOHNSON, KEASLER, HERYEY, COCHRAN and ALCALA, JJ., joined.

After appellant was arrested for driving while intoxicated, his blood was drawn at a hospital by Rachel Lopez. Although Lopez’s job title was “emergency medical technician” and she was licensed as an EMT-I, her primary duty at the hospital was to draw blood in non-emergency situations. The questions in this case are whether, under § 724.017 of the Transportation Code, Lopez was “emergency medical services personnel” and, if so, whether that fact renders her unable to be a “qualified technician” authorized to take blood specimens in driving-while-intoxicated cases. After reviewing Lopez’s job duties, we hold that she was not “emergency medical services personnel” and that she was a “qualified technician” within the meaning of the statute. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Arrest and Trial Court Ruling

The basic facts of this case are undisputed. On January 26, 2011, appellant was involved in a vehicle accident and was arrested for driving while intoxicated. One of the other people involved in the accident was taken to the hospital. Because of this,1 without the police obtaining a warrant, appeilant was taken to a hospital so that a mandatory, involuntary blood specimen could be taken. There, appellant’s blood was drawn by Rachel Lopez, an employee of the hospital and an Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediate (“EMT-I”). Appellant’s blood-alcohol content was 0.23.

Appellant moved to suppress the results of the blood test, arguing that Lopez was not a person authorized by § 724.017 of the Transportation Code to take a blood specimen. Specifically, appellant contended that Lopez was not a “qualified techni[84]*84cian” within the meaning of the statute because she was part of the hospital’s “emergency medical services personnel.” Section 724.017(a) provides:

Only a physician, qualified technician, chemist, registered professional nurse, or licensed vocational nurse may take a blood specimen at the request or order of a peace officer under this chapter.

Section 724.017(c) says:

In this section, “qualified technician” does not include emergency medical services personnel.

A hearing was held on the motion, and Lopez testified.

Following the hearing, the trial court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law, which included the following: 1) Lopez’s testimony was truthful; 2) she was a licensed EMT-I; 3) she was employed by the hospital for approximately six years; 4) as an EMT-I, she was trained to draw blood, start IVs, do tracheotomies, and start intubation; 5) her duties in the hospital’s emergency room were limited to drawing blood, but she was occasionally called to other parts of the hospital to start IV’s; 6) she was also trained as an EMT-Basic, a lower paraprofessional license; 7) when taking blood for a law-enforcement officer she used a kit provided by the officer; and 8) appellant’s blood was taken in a sanitary place, by one trained to do so, and in a reasonable manner.

The transcript of the proceedings established that Lopez’s primary duty at the hospital was drawing blood. Lopez conducted anywhere from fifty to one-hundred blood draws per day, and she had drawn blood during the entire time she was employed at the hospital. She maintained her own office at the hospital where she conducted the blood draws. Lopez was familiar with and explained the process by which a blood specimen is taken in driving-while-intoxicated cases when requested by a law-enforcement officer. Moreover, after the time Lopez drew appellant’s blood but before the suppression hearing, the hospital instituted new policies that changed the job titles of some of its staff, including Lopez, whose job title changed from EMT-I to Patient Care Technician, Level 1. This change in job title required no additional training or duties.

The trial court never explicitly concluded that Lopez was a “qualified technician” under the statute, nor was there any express testimony from Lopez to that effect. The trial court denied appellant’s motion to suppress. Following that denial, appellant pled guilty to driving while intoxicated and was sentenced to the Harris County Jail for one-hundred eighty days, probated for eighteen months.

B. Court of Appeals’s Opinion

The court of appeals reversed the trial court’s judgment and remanded the case for a new trial.2 It held that the language of § 724.017 was plain, and it clearly excluded Lopez, an EMT-I, from being a qualified technician able to take a blood specimen from appellant.

The court stated that it was troubled by the fact that the statute excluded emergency medical services personnel such as Lopez, considering that she was “more qualified to take a blood specimen than some other non-emergency medical services personnel who have been deemed to be ‘qualified technicians’ under Section 724.017(a).”3 The court nevertheless concluded that, notwithstanding its undesirable consequences in particular cases, because the statute laid out a bright-line rule, it did not produce an absurd result that the legislature could not possibly have [85]*85intended.4 Ultimately, the court reasoned that anyone licensed and titled as an EMT-I, who works in an emergency room, and is trained in providing emergency services, is unambiguously excluded by the statute, no matter his qualifications to take blood specimens.5

Concluding that the statute was plain in its meaning, the court of appeals stated that resort to legislative history was unwarranted.6 It nevertheless went on to discuss the legislative history of the statute to show that reliance on it by the State was not helpful in any event.7 The State had argued that a statement in the bill analysis indicated that emergency medical services personnel were excluded so that blood draws taken in ambulances would not be considered to have been taken in a sanitary place. Rejecting the State’s reliance on this part of the legislative history, however, the court of appeals reasoned that if the legislature had “wanted to prevent blood draws from being conducted in certain locations, it could have expressed that intent clearly in the statute without categorically excluding an entire class of medical services personnel.”8

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review and Principles of Statutory Construction

Because the historical facts are not disputed, and because statutory construction is a question of law, we review the trial court’s ruling on the motion to suppress de novo.9 When interpreting the meaning of a statute, we seek to effectuate the collective intent of the legislators who enacted the statute.10 However, if the text of the statute is ambiguous or would lead to absurd consequences that the legislature could not possibly have intended, we may consider extra-textual sources, such as the legislative history and the consequences of a particular construction.11

B.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
405 S.W.3d 82, 2013 WL 1890731, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 743, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/krause-v-state-texcrimapp-2013.