State of Iowa v. Tony Gene Lukins

846 N.W.2d 902, 2014 WL 1998540, 2014 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 53
Supreme Court of Iowa·Decided May 16, 2014·No. 12–2221·Published·Cited by 32 cases

Opinions

ZAGER, Justice.

Tony Lukins was arrested for operating while intoxicated. After registering a .207 on a breath test at the O’Brien County jail, Lukins made several statements to the arresting officer indicating his desire to retake the breath test. After a great deal of discussion, the officer denied Lukins’s request. Prior to trial, Lukins moved to suppress the breath-test result arguing suppression was required because he had been denied his statutory right to an independent chemical test. The district court denied Lukins’s motion, and after a bench trial on the minutes of testimony, it convicted Lukins of operating while intoxicated, second offense. Lukins appealed, and we transferred the case to the court of appeals. The court of appeals reversed his conviction, holding the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress. The State sought further review, which we granted. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the decision of the court of appeals and reverse the judgment of the district court.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

Around 1:40 a.m. on February 9, 2012, Chief of Police Timothy Rohrbaugh witnessed a black pickup truck run a stop sign in Sutherland, Iowa. After following the truck a short distance, Rohrbaugh turned on his police cruiser’s flashing lights. The truck did not stop. Rohr-baugh pursued the truck onto a highway, where the truck reached speeds of more than eighty miles per hour. At one point, the truck was jerked back onto the pavement after veering into a ditch. After the truck was straightened, it travelled a short distance and came to a stop.

Rohrbaugh went to the truck and immediately suspected the driver had been drinking. He smelled alcohol and noticed the driver had slurred speech and a bloody chin. The driver, Tony Lukins, stated he “had a few of beers at the bar.”

After being requested by Rohrbaugh to perform field sobriety tests, Lukins agreed to do so. After completing three of the four field sobriety tests, Rohrbaugh asked Lukins to get into his squad car. While Rohrbaugh removed items from off the front passenger seat, Lukins stumbled and fell down into the ditch beside the road. After Lukins got into the squad car, Rohr-baugh conducted a preliminary breath test. After confirming the preliminary breath test indicated Lukins’s blood alcohol content was above the legal limit, Rohrbaugh arrested him for operating while intoxicated and transported him to the county jail in Primghar, Iowa.

At the jail, Rohrbaugh read Lukins the implied consent advisory and requested Lukins consent to a Breathalyzer test. Lukins, who was bleeding from a cut on his chin, consented to the Breathalyzer test. The Datamaster result of the Breathalyzer test was .207, over the legal limit of .08. After Rohrbaugh informed Lukins of this result, the following conversation was captured by the jail’s security cameras:

LUKINS: I don’t mean to be an a* * or anything, but can I get a re-check, or anything ... ?
[905]*905ROHRBAUGH: A what?
LUKINS: ... the way I’m bleeding. ...
ROHRBAUGH: A rain check?
LUKINS: A re-check. You know, with this blood and that.
ROHRBAUGH: You want your blood checked?
LUKINS (looking at and gesturing toward the Breathalyzer machine): No, can I get a re-check?
ROHRBAUGH (tapping the breath-test machine): A re-check of this?
LUKINS: Yeah.
ROHRBAUGH: And what’s the blood gonna make it different, or ... ?
LUKINS: I don’t know. I’m just ... I didn’t know I was bleeding this f* * *ing bad until you pulled me over and I looked at my hand.
ROHRBAUGH: I don’t think we need to do another check because I don’t think the blood or the bleeding had anything to do with your breath.
LUKINS: Well, no, I just was ... I don’t know what the heck to really check, to tell you the truth.

After Rohrbaugh read Lukins advisories about the revocation of his driver’s license, Lukins returned to the issue of the test:

LUKINS: Can I ask for a re-blow, by the way?
ROHRBAUGH: It isn’t going to be any different.
LUKINS: That seems really f* * *ing high. For four f* * *ing beers that seems ... or, actually, I’m sorry, a six pack, that seems really high.
[[Image here]]
LUKINS: Can I get a re-blow please, Rohrbaugh?
ROHRBAUGH: It isn’t going to be any different.
LUKINS: You don’t think so?
ROHRBAUGH: No.
LUKINS: Can we try it?
ROHRBAUGH: No.

Rohrbaugh then transferred Lukins to a deputy at the county jail. Lukins asked the deputy,

LUKINS: Can I get a re-breathalyzer test, by the way? For a point-two-oh? [referring to his blood-alcohol content].
DEPUTY: That’s not my call; that’s up to the officer.

No second test or independent chemical test was offered or performed.

On March 5, Lukins was charged by trial information with operating while intoxicated, second offense, under Iowa Code sections 321J.2(l)(a) and 321J.2(1)(b)1 See Iowa Code § 321J.2(l)(a), (b) (2011). Prior to trial, Lukins filed a motion to suppress the Breathalyzer results. Lukins argued his statements at the county jail implicated his right to obtain an independent chemical test under Iowa Code section 321J.11.2 According to Lukins, once [906]*906he implicated the right, officers were required to advise him of his right to obtain an independent chemical test. The officers’ failure to do so, Lukins insisted, was a denial of his right to an independent chemical test. Because Lukins was not provided a reasonable opportunity to obtain an independent chemical test, he argued the results of the breath test should be suppressed. The State resisted.

After a hearing, the district court issued its ruling on Lukins’s motion. The district court found based on the video recording that Lukins’s requests could not reasonably be construed as requesting an independent test. The district court instead concluded Lukins requested a second test using the Breathalyzer machine. According to the district court, these statements were inadequate to invoke Lukins’s statutory right to an independent chemical test. Therefore, the district court denied Lu-kins’s motion to suppress the Breathalyzer results.

On November 15, the matter proceeded to a bench trial on the minutes of testimony. The district court found Lukins guilty of operating while intoxicated, second offense. The district court sentenced Lu-kins the same day.

Lukins appealed the ruling on the motion to suppress, and we transferred the case to the court of appeals.

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State of Iowa v. Tony Gene Lukins, 846 N.W.2d 902, 2014 WL 1998540, 2014 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 53 (iowa 2014).

846 N.W.2d 902 (State of Iowa v. Tony Gene Lukins) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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