Sherrill v. Arizona Department of Transportation

793 P.2d 1109, 164 Ariz. 442, 53 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 18, 1990 Ariz. App. LEXIS 25
Court of Appeals of Arizona·Decided February 8, 1990·No. No. 1 CA-CV 88-591·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinions

OPINION

GRANT, Chief Judge.

In this appeal, we decide what constitutes successful completion of a breathalyzer test.

FACTS

Nancy Jane Sherrill was arrested January 29, 1988, for driving while intoxicated. A police officer took her to the Scottsdale Police Department and requested that she submit to a breathalyzer test. She agreed to do so and also admitted that she had been drinking.

Sherrill took the breathalyzer test twice. On the first occasion, she failed to blow hard enough into the breathalyzer machine to give a sufficient sample; the machine indicated it had received a “deficient sample” and showed a blood-alcohol content (BAC) reading of 0.000%. The second time, the machine again indicated Sherrill had provided a deficient sample but she had blown hard enough to produce a BAC reading of 0.295%.

The police officer directing administration of the breathalyzer determined that Sherrill failed to successfully complete the test as required by the Implied Consent Law, A.R.S. § 28-691.1 He forwarded a

[444] copy of the report of refusal to the Motor Vehicle Division, as required by A.R.S. § 28-691(D). Sherrill requested a hearing. At the hearing, Sherrill stipulated that one sample had produced a reading of 0.295% BAC. The state introduced as evidence of refusal the two machine readouts indicating the two samples were deficient. The hearing officer concluded that Sherrill had refused to successfully complete the test and suspended her license for 12 months.

Sherrill appealed the license suspension to the superior court, which affirmed the hearing officer’s administrative decision to suspend her driver’s license. Meantime, Sherrill also had been charged with DWI.2 The state contended that the 0.295% BAC reading produced by the second test was valid and admissible, even though it was based on a deficient sample. Sherrill ultimately pleaded guilty to the DWI charge.

ISSUE

We must decide whether a deficient breath sample that yields a reading well above the legal presumption of intoxication3 is a successful completion of the test under A.R.S. § 28-691(B).

ANALYSIS

Sherrill contends that her license should not have been suspended because A.R.S. § 28-691 has a “prophylactic” purpose that was satisfied both by her second test result, which was well above the legal presumption of intoxication, and by her admission even before taking the test that she was drunk. She additionally argues that the law requires that her refusal be willful.

The state responds that, regardless of the machine’s production of a usable readout, Sherrill failed to complete the test by not breathing into the machine for the required time period, as shown by the machine’s indication that she gave a deficient sample. At oral argument, the state’s attorney suggested that Sherrill might have had a reading higher than the 0.295% BAC had she completed the test, and that she actually had deprived the state of evidence.

We reject Sherrill’s contention that she met the intent of the Implied Consent Law by blowing hard enough to provide usable evidence that she had been driving with a BAC higher than the legal presumption. The Implied Consent Law provides a sanction separate from that of driving while intoxicated if a driver refuses to submit to a BAC test: the driver’s license must be suspended. A.R.S. § 28-691(B) (“if the violator refuses [a test] he shall be informed that his license or permit to drive will be suspended or denied for twelve months unless he expressly agrees to submit to and successfully completes the test”). Suspension of the driver’s license under the Implied Consent Law is complemented by the sanctions imposed for a DWI conviction in that the BAC reading resulting from compliance may be the evidence for a DWI prosecution against the driver. A driver may choose not to comply with the Implied Consent Law and deprive the prosecutors of the evidence — most often the results of a breath test — that could be used against the driver in the DWI prosecution. See A.R.S. § 28-692(E). The lack of a BAC reading may prevent the driver from being convicted of DWI, but the refusal to comply with the Implied Consent Law ensures that the driver loses his or her license for 12 months for failing to comply with the administrative procedure. See, e.g., Gilbert v. Dolan, 41 Colo.App. 173, 586 P.2d 233 (1978) (dismissal of criminal DWI charge has no effect on the revocation of the plaintiff’s license for refusing to comply with implied consent law).

In Kuznicki v. Arizona Dep’t of Transp., 152 Ariz. 381, 732 P.2d 1119 (App. 1986), the defendant argued that the state could not on one hand use the sample as proof of guilt of DWI and on the other [445] hand contend that the appellee had refused to be tested. Division 2 disagreed, stating:

Essentially all the hearing officer ruled was that an unusable test did not satisfy the statute. That a deficient breath sample prompted a (perhaps unprovable) charge of driving with a blood alcohol level in excess of the statutory limit ... [is] simply irrelevant to the issue of whether such a sample complied with the statutory obligation to take a breath test____ Nothing prevented the appellee from offering evidence at the hearing that the sample provided was not deficient.

Id. at 382, 732 P.2d at 1120 (emphasis added). Had Sherrill’s case gone to trial, Sher-rill could have attacked the validity of the BAC reading. The issue never arose, however, because she pleaded guilty to the DWI charge.

Sherrill’s argument implies that compliance with the Implied Consent Law is irrelevant as long as she provided prosecutors with a BAC reading high enough to show she was drunk. The law once allowed drivers to escape sanctions for failing to comply if they pleaded guilty to DWI charges and did not appeal their convictions. This scheme was found to be unconstitutional in Voyles v. Thomeycroft, 398 F.Supp. 706 (D.Ariz.1975), and was deleted from the statute in 1976.

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Sherrill v. Arizona Department of Transportation, 793 P.2d 1109, 164 Ariz. 442, 53 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 18, 1990 Ariz. App. LEXIS 25 (Ark. Ct. App. 1990).

793 P.2d 1109 (Sherrill v. Arizona Department of Transportation) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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