State v. Emily Anne Ertl

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedFebruary 18, 2025
Docket2023AP000234-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Emily Anne Ertl (State v. Emily Anne Ertl) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Emily Anne Ertl, (Wis. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. February 18, 2025 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Samuel A. Christensen petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2023AP234-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2021CT64

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT III

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

EMILY ANNE ERTL,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Oneida County: MARY ROTH BURNS, Judge. Affirmed.

¶1 HRUZ, J.1 Emily Anne Ertl appeals a judgment convicting her, pursuant to a no-contest plea, of operating a motor vehicle with a prohibited alcohol concentration (PAC), as a second offense. Ertl argues that the circuit court erred by denying her motion to suppress evidence on the ground that law enforcement

1 This appeal is decided by one judge pursuant to WIS. STAT. § 752.31(2) (2021-22). All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2021-22 version unless otherwise noted. No. 2023AP234-CR

impermissibly extended the scope of her initial detention for “inattentive driving.” Specifically, she contends that the court misapplied this court’s decision in State v. Gaulrapp, 207 Wis. 2d 600, 558 N.W.2d 696 (Ct. App. 1996), to the facts of her case. We conclude that Gaulrapp’s holding is applicable and that Ertl’s detention was not unreasonably prolonged by law enforcement’s single request that she voluntarily submit to field sobriety tests. Accordingly, we reject Ertl’s arguments and affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 On May 19, 2021, at approximately 7:33 p.m., Officer Alex Schmidt, with the Minocqua Police Department, received a dispatch communication from an anonymous caller reporting “a reckless driver heading south on U.S. Highway 51 coming into the town of Minocqua.” The caller provided the vehicle’s license plate, make, model, and color and “advised that the driver pulled into the McDonald’s in the town of Minocqua.” Schmidt was able to locate the vehicle, later found to be driven by Ertl, in the McDonald’s drive-through lane. After the vehicle left McDonald’s, Schmidt followed Ertl for a period of time, and he “observed [her] vehicle cross the center yellow median once,” “observed the vehicle cross into the other lane once,” “and then the vehicle began to straddle the white traffic lane separating the two [southbound] lanes.”

¶3 Ultimately, Officer Schmidt executed a traffic stop on Ertl’s vehicle. See State v. Houghton, 2015 WI 79, ¶30, 364 Wis. 2d 234, 868 N.W.2d 143 (holding that “reasonable suspicion that a traffic law has been or is being violated is sufficient to justify all traffic stops”). According to Schmidt’s testimony, when he first encountered Ertl, he did not note any signs of intoxication. Schmidt told Ertl that the reason he stopped her was because she had been swerving her vehicle on

2 No. 2023AP234-CR

the road and that law enforcement had also received a complaint that she had been swerving. He then inquired whether Ertl had been drinking, and Ertl said, “No.” Nevertheless, Schmidt asked Ertl if she would “be willing to do standardized field sobriety tests for me.” Ertl consented. Her consent occurred within approximately one minute of Schmidt beginning his discussion with Ertl. When Ertl exited the vehicle, Schmidt noted “a strong odor of alcohol coming from her person.” Schmidt also observed that Ertl had slurred speech and “glossy,” bloodshot eyes.

¶4 Officer Schmidt had Ertl perform the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the vertical gaze nystagmus test, the walk-and-turn test, and the one-leg stand test, all of which revealed multiple clues of intoxication. Schmidt also asked Ertl to submit to a preliminary breath test (PBT), to which she eventually agreed. The result of the PBT was a .19 blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Schmidt then placed Ertl under arrest for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated (OWI), as a second offense.

¶5 Ertl was charged in Oneida County with OWI and PAC, both as second offenses. Ertl filed several pretrial motions to suppress evidence, raising five distinct challenges to the traffic stop. The circuit court held an evidentiary hearing on Ertl’s motions. At that hearing, Officer Schmidt was the sole testifying witness.2

2 Ertl explains that during the hearing on the motions, Officer Schmidt’s testimony revealed an “unforeseen issue” related to Schmidt’s request that Ertl exit the vehicle. With the circuit court’s permission, Ertl then filed a supplemental brief, moving for suppression on the ground that Schmidt impermissibly extended the scope of Ertl’s initial detention—i.e., the issue addressed in this appeal.

3 No. 2023AP234-CR

¶6 The circuit court issued a written decision, granting suppression of certain evidence based on one of Ertl’s motions and denying the rest.3 Relevant to the issue on appeal, the court concluded that “Officer Schmidt’s questioning and request for [Ertl] to perform field sobriety testing did not impermissibly extend the stop.” The court stated that “[t]he instant case is analogous to Gaulrapp,” reasoning that “the amount of time that [the] investigation took was … modest” and that Schmidt’s request for Ertl to conduct field sobriety tests was “not, in itself, an unreasonable extension of the stop, any more than requesting to search the driver’s vehicle in Gaulrapp.” The court concluded that because Ertl consented to perform the tests, “the extension caused by that testing was consented to by” Ertl. The court, therefore, denied Ertl’s motion to suppress evidence on this basis.

¶7 Thereafter, Ertl entered a no-contest plea to the PAC charge, and the circuit court found her guilty. Ertl now appeals.4

DISCUSSION

¶8 On appeal Ertl argues that Officer Schmidt impermissibly extended the scope of her traffic stop, and she challenges the circuit court’s denial of her motion to suppress evidence on the basis that the court failed to properly apply precedential Fourth Amendment case law.5 When reviewing a motion to suppress,

3 The Honorable Patrick O’Melia entered the order on Ertl’s motions to suppress. After Judge O’Melia’s retirement, the Honorable Mary Roth Burns was assigned to the case. 4 Our review of an order denying a motion to suppress evidence is preserved notwithstanding Ertl’s no-contest plea. See WIS. STAT. § 971.31(10). 5 The Fourth Amendment provides:

4 No. 2023AP234-CR

whether law enforcement’s conduct violated the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures is a question of constitutional fact. State v. Griffith, 2000 WI 72, ¶23, 236 Wis. 2d 48, 613 N.W.2d 72. We give deference to the circuit court’s findings of evidentiary or historical fact, upholding the court’s findings unless they are clearly erroneous. Id.; City of Sheboygan v. Cesar, 2010 WI App 170, ¶10, 330 Wis. 2d 760, 796 N.W.2d 429. We independently determine whether those facts constitute a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Cesar, 330 Wis. 2d 760, ¶10.

¶9 “The temporary detention of individuals during the stop of an automobile by the police, even if only for a brief period and for a limited purpose, constitutes a ‘seizure’ of ‘persons’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.” Gaulrapp, 207 Wis. 2d at 605; see also State v. Gammons, 2001 WI App 36, ¶6, 241 Wis. 2d 296, 625 N.W.2d 623 (stating that when conducting an investigatory stop, law enforcement “must have a reasonable suspicion, grounded in specific articulable facts and reasonable inferences from those facts, that an individual is violating the law”).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Florida v. Bostick
501 U.S. 429 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Ohio v. Robinette
519 U.S. 33 (Supreme Court, 1996)
State v. Malone
2004 WI 108 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Gammons
2001 WI App 36 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2001)
State v. Luebeck
2006 WI App 87 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2006)
State v. Gaulrapp
558 N.W.2d 696 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1996)
State v. Griffith
2000 WI 72 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2000)
Rodriguez v. United States
575 U.S. 348 (Supreme Court, 2015)
State v. Richard E. Houghton, Jr.
2015 WI 79 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2015)
State v. John Patrick Wright
2019 WI 45 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2019)
State v. Heather Jan VanBeek
2021 WI 51 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2021)
City of Sheboygan v. Cesar
2010 WI App 170 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2010)
State v. Anagnos
2012 WI 64 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2012)
State v. Kimberly Dale Crone
2021 WI App 29 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2021)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Emily Anne Ertl, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-emily-anne-ertl-wisctapp-2025.