Pena v. State

664 P.2d 169, 1983 Alas. App. LEXIS 310
CourtCourt of Appeals of Alaska
DecidedMay 6, 1983
Docket6174
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 664 P.2d 169 (Pena v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pena v. State, 664 P.2d 169, 1983 Alas. App. LEXIS 310 (Ala. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

*171 OPINION

BRYNER, Chief Judge.

Manuel Robert Pena, Jr., appeals his conviction and sentence for manslaughter. See AS 11.41.120(a)(1). There is little dispute as to the facts relating to the principal issue raised on appeal.

Shortly before 11 p.m. on September 2, 1980, a pickup truck driven by Pena collided with an automobile at the intersection of C Street and Potter Road in Anchorage. Pena had been driving south on C Street, while the other automobile, driven by Chris Sciscente, was headed west on Potter Road when the collision occurred. Billy S. Dow-ney, a passenger in Sciscente’s automobile, was killed.

Anchorage police officers called to the scene of the accident observed that Pena had apparently been drinking; Pena was arrested and taken to the police station, where he refused a request to take a breathalyzer examination. Police then obtained a search warrant authorizing seizure of a sample of Pena’s blood for testing. Pena was taken to the Alaska Hospital at approximately 2:4& a.m. on September 3, 1980, where a sample of his blood was drawn.

The state ultimately charged Pena with manslaughter, and his case proceeded to trial before a jury beginning on March 2, 1981. During trial, evidence was admitted by the state showing that Pena’s blood sample was found to contain an alcohol level of .213%. A pathologist from the Alaska Hospital, Dr. Probst, testified that the .213% reading would have yielded a blood alcohol level of .273% at the time of the fatal collision, about four hours before the blood sample was drawn. Dr. Probst also testified about the deleterious effect on a person’s ability to drive of such substantial quantities of alcohol. On March 10, 1981, Pena’s jury returned a verdict finding him guilty as charged.

Pena’s primary argument on appeal is that evidence of his blood alcohol level was improperly obtained and should therefore have been suppressed at trial. Pena does not rely on constitutional grounds to challenge the validity of the warrant authorizing seizure of his blood; the issue that he raises is strictly one of statutory construction. Specifically, Pena’s argument is predicated on the assertion that seizure and testing of blood after a refusal to submit to a breathalyzer test is prohibited by the Alaska Implied Consent Statute, AS 28.35.-031-.034. The two crucial provisions of this statute for purposes of Pena’s claim are contained in AS 28.35.031 and AS 28.35.-032(a). At the time of Pena’s offense, these provisions stated:

AS 28.35.031. Implied Consent. A person who operates or drives a motor vehicle in this state shall be considered to have given consent to a chemical test or tests of his breath for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his blood or breath if lawfully arrested for an offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed while the person was operating or driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated. The test or tests shall be administered at the direction of a law enforcement officer who has reasonable grounds to believe that the person was operating or driving a motor vehicle in this state while intoxicated. [Emphasis added.]
AS 28.35.032. Refusal to Submit to Chemical Test, (a) If a person under arrest refuses the request of a law enforcement officer to submit to a chemical test of his breath as provided in AS 28.-35.031, after being advised by the officer that his refusal will result in the suspension, denial or revocation of his license and that the refusal may be used against him in a civil or criminal action or proceeding arising out of an act alleged to have been committed by him while operating or driving a vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor, a chemical test shall not be given. [Emphasis added.]

In asserting his claim on appeal, Pena relies on the interpretation given to these provisions by the Alaska Supreme Court in Anchorage v. Geber, 592 P.2d 1187 (Alaska *172 1979). 1 Geber involved four separate cases in which motorists had been subjected to warrantless, non-consensual blood alcohol tests after being arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI). The defendants relied upon AS 28.35.082(a), contending that the breathalyzer test was the only proper means by which police could have obtained evidence of blood alcohol content.

The supreme court characterized the issue presented in Geber as follows:

[T]he question in the cases at bar is whether the language of AS 28.35.032(a), providing that, upon a person’s refusal to submit to a chemical test of his breath, “a chemical test shall not be given,” means that law enforcement officials are precluded from performing other chemical tests in order to determine whether alcohol is present in the person’s blood.

Id. at 1190 (emphasis in original). After a review of the legislative history of the Alaska Implied Consent Statute, the court concluded:

The express language of AS 28.35.032(a), coupled with the legislative history described above, leads us to the conclusion that in enacting the Implied Consent Statute the legislature intended that once a breath test had been refused no other chemical test would be allowed.

Id. at 1191. In reaching this conclusion, the court expressly rejected the argument that a blood test was not a “chemical test” within the meaning of AS 28.35.032(a):

We interpret the language of AS 28.35.-032(a), stating that after refusal to submit to a test of the breath “a chemical test shall not be given,” to mean any chemical test, be it of the breath, blood, urine or otherwise. Thus, we reject the state and municipality’s argument that such language means only that no other chemical test of the breath shall be given.

Id. at 1191 (emphasis in original).

The state argues vigorously that Geber ⅛ interpretation of AS 28.35.032(a) should be applied only to prosecutions for DWI and that the Geber holding should not be extended to felony charges arising out of incidents involving drunk driving. We fail to perceive any basis for the narrow reading of AS 28.35.032(a) proposed by the state.

It is manifest that the provisions of the Implied Consent Statute are not restricted to DWI prosecutions. Instead, by the express and unequivocal terms of the statute itself, implied consent applies to all cases in which a person is “lawfully arrested for an offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed while the person was operating or driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated.” AS 28.35.031.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
664 P.2d 169, 1983 Alas. App. LEXIS 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pena-v-state-alaskactapp-1983.