State v. Fierro

2014 SD 62, 853 N.W.2d 235, 2014 S.D. 62, 2014 S.D. LEXIS 95, 2014 WL 4100415
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 20, 2014
Docket26890
StatusPublished
Cited by63 cases

This text of 2014 SD 62 (State v. Fierro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fierro, 2014 SD 62, 853 N.W.2d 235, 2014 S.D. 62, 2014 S.D. LEXIS 95, 2014 WL 4100415 (S.D. 2014).

Opinion

WILBUR, Justice.

[¶ 1.] In this intermediate appeal, we examine a magistrate court’s suppression of blood evidence seized without a warrant pursuant to South Dakota’s implied consent statutes. We affirm the suppression of the blood evidence.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

[¶ 2.] On the evening of August 4, 2013, Shauna Fierro was riding her motorcycle to her home in Butte County, South Dakota. At approximately 11:18 p.m., South Dakota Highway Patrol Troopers Jerry Kastein and Richard Olauson stopped Fi-erro after she committed a traffic violation.

[¶ 3.] After reviewing Fierro’s South Dakota driver’s license, Trooper Kastein administered a number of standard sobriety tests and concluded that Fierro did not pass some of them. Fierro was placed under arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI).

[¶ 4.] After making the arrest, Trooper Kastein, reading from a DUI advisement card, informed Fierro that she was required by law to give a sample of her blood. When Fierro specifically asked if she had to submit to a blood withdrawal, Trooper Kastein responded: “Yep, because state law says you have to.”

[¶ 5.] Both troopers escorted Fierro to the Meade County jail. Trooper Olauson escorted Fierro inside the facility, where she was required to submit to a blood draw performed by a county employee. While being processed, Fierro informed the officers that she wanted to refuse the blood test and consult with an attorney. When the technician first attempted to draw blood from Fierro’s arm, she pulled away to avoid it. Ultimately, a sample was obtained.

[¶ 6.] Trooper Kastein made no attempt to obtain consent from Fierro for *238 the blood draw. And, at the hearing on the motion to suppress, Trooper Kastein remarked:

Q: Okay. So just so we’re clear, at no time did you give her any choice on whether or not she was going to have blood taken; right?
A: That’s correct.

Trooper Kastein also testified that he had received training from his superior officers regarding the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Missouri v. McNeely, — U.S.-, 133 S.Ct. 1552, 185 L.Ed.2d 696 (2013).

[¶ 7.] On August 7, 2013, the State charged Fierro with alternative counts of driving under the influence in violation of SDCL 32-23-1(1) and (2). On October 11, 2013, Fierro filed a motion to suppress the blood test administration and results. An evidentiary hearing was held on October 25, 2013. The magistrate court heard testimony from Trooper Kastein, Trooper Olauson, and Fierro. The court also had the opportunity to view a video excerpt of the arrest. Ultimately, the court granted Fierro’s motion to suppress.

[¶ 8.] On November 4, 2013, the State filed a motion to reconsider the suppression of the blood evidence and attempted to place new evidence into the record by filing a motion for judicial notice with various documents attached. A hearing on the motion to reconsider was held on November 22, 2013, and no additional evidence was presented. Again, the court denied the motion for reconsideration and reaffirmed its earlier ruling. The State’s motion for judicial notice was never ruled upon by the court.

[¶ 9.] The court signed and entered its order granting Fierro’s motion to suppress on November 27, 2013. In its findings of fact and conclusions of law entered on December 2, 2013, the court found that Fierro was never asked to consent to the seizure of her blood, that she did not voluntarily consent to the seizure of her blood, and that she refused to voluntarily submit to the seizure of her blood before the procedure was administered at the Meade County jail. The court also found that there were no exigent circumstances provided by the State.

[¶ 10.] The court held: “In light of the McNeely ruling, the [c]ourt finds that the State’s interpretation of SDCL 32-23-10 in this particular case requiring a mandatory blood withdrawal without a warrant and without proving a valid exception to the warrant requirement is unconstitutional.” 1 The court concluded that the State’s war-rantless seizure of Fierro’s blood violated the Fourth Amendment because the State did not demonstrate that an exception to the warrant requirement applied. Lastly, the court held that the arresting officer was aware of the McNeely ruling at the time of the search and that “[u]nder the particular facts of this case and in consideration of its future deterrent effects, ... suppression of the evidence [was] an appropriate remedy.”

[¶ 11.] On January 13, 2014, this Court entered its order granting the State’s petition to appeal from the court’s intermediate order. In this appeal, we review:

I. Whether the magistrate court erred by holding that the warrantless search conducted under South Dako *239 ta’s implied consent statutes was unconstitutional.

II. Whether the magistrate court erred by holding the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule was inapplicable.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶ 12.] ‘We review the [ ] court’s grant or denial of a motion to suppress involving an alleged violation of a constitutionally protected right under the de novo standard of review.” State v. Smith, 2014 S.D. 50, ¶ 14, 851 N.W.2d 719, 723. “The [] court’s findings of fact are reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard, but we give no deference to the [ ] court’s conclusions of law.” Id. (quoting State v. Mohr, 2013 S.D. 94, ¶ 12, 841 N.W.2d 440, 444). And although “[f]actual findings of the lower court are reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard, ... once those facts have been determined, ‘the application of a legal standard to those facts is a question of law reviewed de novo.’ ” State v. Heney, 2013 S.D. 77, ¶ 8, 839 N.W.2d 558, 561-62 (quoting State v. Hess, 2004 S.D. 60, ¶ 9, 680 N.W.2d 314, 319).

DECISION

I. Whether the magistrate court erred by holding that the warrant-less search conducted under South Dakota’s implied consent statutes was unconstitutional.

[¶ 13.] As to the first issue, the State contends that the court erred as a matter of law in concluding that the United States Supreme Court’s holding in McNeely controlled, and that as such, the blood draw under the State’s implied consent statute — SDCL 32-23-10 2 — was unconstitutional. The State argues that “[a]pplication of traditional Fourth Amendment analysis compels the conclusion that the South Dakota Legislature may constitutionally condition the privilege to drive within the state on a driver providing irrevocable consent to the withdrawal of blood and other bodily substance[s] following a lawful DUI arrest.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2014 SD 62, 853 N.W.2d 235, 2014 S.D. 62, 2014 S.D. LEXIS 95, 2014 WL 4100415, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fierro-sd-2014.