People v. Culpepper

625 N.E.2d 868, 254 Ill. App. 3d 215, 192 Ill. Dec. 713, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1815
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 9, 1993
Docket4-92-0935
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 625 N.E.2d 868 (People v. Culpepper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Culpepper, 625 N.E.2d 868, 254 Ill. App. 3d 215, 192 Ill. Dec. 713, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1815 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinions

JUSTICE GREEN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Section 11 — 501.1 of the Illinois Vehicle Code (Code) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 951/2, par. 11 — 501.1) requires the Secretary of State (Secretary) to suspend the driver’s license of any person driving on the highways of the State who was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 95V2, par. 11— 501(a)(2)), and submits to a test disclosing an alcohol concentration of 0.10 or more in the driver’s blood. Section 2 — 118.1 of the Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 95V2, par. 2 — 118.1) sets forth a court procedure whereby the driver may seek to have the suspension rescinded. In People v. Orth (1988), 124 Ill. 2d 326, 530 N.E.2d 210, the supreme court defined that procedure as one whereby the driver is first required to make a prima facie case that the determination of alcohol concentration in the blood is inaccurate. If that proof is made, the burden then shifts to the State to lay a foundation for the admission of the test results and to prove those results.

In Orth the measuring instrument of the driver’s blood was a breathalyzer and much of the language in Orth speaks in terms of the use of such an instrument. However, we interpret Orth to hold that the same procedure is applicable to the instant case where blood was actually drawn from the driver seeking rescission of a suspension and then measured for alcohol content. We also hold circuit courts should be liberal in granting continuance to the State in proceedings to rescind summary suspension after a driver has made a prima facie showing. The purpose of such a continuance would be to enable the State to obtain the presence of witnesses who can lay the foundation for the admission of test results.

On September 14, 1992, a ticket was issued charging defendant Marilyn Culpepper with DUI. On September 26, 1992, the Secretary sent her a notice of suspension of her driver’s license. On November 5, 1992, defendant filed a petition in the circuit court of Edgar County pursuant to section 2 — 118.1 of the Code, seeking rescission of that suspension. After holding a hearing, the court entered an order on November 20, 1992, granting rescission of the suspension. The State has appealed. We affirm.

Following the procedure set forth in Orth, defendant initiated the presentation of evidence. She and Edgar County deputy sheriff Earnest Tessman were her significant witnesses. She testified that at approximately 4:30 p.m. on September 14, 1992, she consumed a drink consisting of orange juice and one shot of vodka before mowing her lawn. After mowing, she mixed herself another drink and drank part of it before leaving around 7 p.m. to run some errands. She testified that she had no other alcoholic drinks that day.

Defendant testified that as she drove to her son’s home that evening along a narrow, two-lane country road, a pickup truck pulled onto the road in her lane and proceeded directly at her. The road had no shoulder and a culvert ran along the right side of the road. Defendant swerved right to avoid a collision and drove into the culvert, wrecking her car. She testified that the collision knocked her unconscious for about an hour. When she regained consciousness, she did not know the extent of her injuries. She climbed out of her car and started to walk to a nearby house. Soon thereafter, a man in a van stopped to assist her. She sat in the van while the man called for an ambulance on his car phone. She testified that she was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident and that the accident only occurred because she was run off the road.

Defendant testified that once she was in the ambulance, the attendants “started an IV” (intravenous injection) and gave her oxygen. They also put a cervical collar on her and placed her on a backboard.

According to defendant, when she arrived at a hospital, she learned she had sustained serious injuries (a fractured vertebra, a fractured left arm, and multiple head wounds). Medical personnel gave her another IV while she was in the emergency room. She was in a great deal of pain, and she had no idea what medicine, if any, she was given for it. After having X rays taken, she was taken back to the emergency room and received anesthesia prior to receiving facial stitches. She described her lip as “completely split” and her nose as “swollen.” Soon thereafter, a blood sample was taken from her before she was taken to the intensive-care ward.

Tessman testified that he arrived at the accident scene as defendant was receiving medical attention. Tessman followed the ambulance to the hospital and initially found defendant in the emergency room. Because he “could smell a big odor of alcohol coming from her breath,” he placed her under arrest for DUI. He testified that after he read the warnings to defendant and received her consent for a blood test, he asked a nurse to draw a blood sample from her. He further testified that he delivered defendant’s DUI ticket and the required “warnings to motorists” document at defendant’s residence the following day. Tessman’s sworn report, which he filed with the court pursuant to section 11 — 501.1(d) of the Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 95V2, par. 11 — 501.1(d)), showed that the blood test given defendant indicated a blood-alcohol content of 0.17.

At the conclusion of defendant’s evidence, the State made a motion for a “directed finding” in its favor. After hearing arguments, the court denied the motion without comment. The State then called Tessman as a State’s witness, but none of his testimony is significant to the issues involved on appeal.

Much of the closing argument concerned matters not important on appeal. The significant portion of defendant’s argument emphasized that the blood test had taken place shortly after defendant had been given an intravenous injection. Defendant relied upon the case of People v. Miller (1988), 166 Ill. App. 3d 155, 519 N.E.2d 717, where a DUI conviction was based upon a blood test given a driver shortly after he had been given medication intravenously. The Miller court held that the evidence of the intravenous injections required evidence on the part of the State that the injections did not skew the blood test results in order to make the results admissible. As this was not done, the court reversed the conviction and remanded for a new trial. The State maintained Miller was inapplicable because it involved a criminal prosecution where proof beyond a reasonable doubt was required whereas the instant case was a civil one where the burden of proof was less stringent.

The circuit court concluded that Miller was somewhat analogous even though it involved a criminal case where the burden was upon the State to prove the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The court noted that the defendant driver had the burden of proceeding with the evidence and then the burden shifted to the State. Then, the trial court here stated that the uncertainty as to the blood test required it to order rescission.

Various appellate court decisions have discussed and ruled upon the procedures to be followed in a hearing on a request to rescind a summary suspension of a driver’s license, but the supreme court decision in Orth is the definitive one.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
625 N.E.2d 868, 254 Ill. App. 3d 215, 192 Ill. Dec. 713, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-culpepper-illappct-1993.