State v. Garcia

489 N.E.2d 168, 1986 Ind. App. LEXIS 2343
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 27, 1986
Docket1-385 A 65
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 489 N.E.2d 168 (State v. Garcia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Garcia, 489 N.E.2d 168, 1986 Ind. App. LEXIS 2343 (Ind. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION ON REHEARING

NEAL, Judge.

Since the hand down of the opinion on July 24, 1985, 481 N.E.2d 148, a number of new cases have been brought to our attention which essentially affirm the constitutionality of a roadblock. State v. Cloukey (Me.1985), 486 A.2d 143; State v. Kirk (App.Div.1985), 202 N.J.Super. 28, 493 A.2d 1271; State v. Tourtillott (1980), 289 Or. 845, 618 P.2d 423, cert. denied, 451 U.S. 972, 101 S.Ct. 2051, 68 LEd.2d 352; State v. Schroeder (1983), 66 Or.App. 754, 675 P.2d 1111, review denied, 296 Or. 648, 678 *169 P.2d 1227; People v. Conway (1985), 135 Ill.App.3d 887, 90 Ill.Dec. 618, 482 N.E.2d 437; and People v. Bartley (1985), 109 Ill.2d 273, 98 Ill.Dec. 347, 486 N.E.2d 880.

In Bartley, 93 Ill.Dec. 347, 486 N.E.2d 880, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the Illinois Court of Appeals opinion cited in our original opinion as People v. Bartley (1984), 125 Ill.App.3d 575, 80 Ill.Dec. 894, 466 N.E.2d 346. Our Fourth District relied heavily upon that appellate opinion in State v. McLaughlin (1984), Ind.App., 471 N.E.2d 1125. In the reversal the Illinois Supreme Court stated:

"There is some authority for the proposition that highly visible patrols assigned to be on watch for erratic types of driving are a more effective means of apprehending drunken drivers than the means used here and therefore the subjective intrusion on individual rights outweighs the value of a roadblock. (State v. Koppel (N.H.1985), 499 A.2d 977.) The same point is emphasized in State v. Marchand (1985), 104 Wash.2d 434, 706 P.2d 225, and repeatedly in a recent law review article on the propriety of drunk-driving roadblocks (Jacobs & Strossen, Mass Investigations Without Individualized Suspicion: A Constitutional and Policy Critique of Drunk Driving Roadblocks, 18 U.S.D.L.Rev. 595 (1985)). We are not persuaded that roadblocks of the kind at issue here lose out in the balancing test for this reason. First, the erratic driver may cause injury to himself or others before he is observed by patrols. Second, the ability of a drunk driver to avoid erratic movements along a roadway does not mean he will be able to respond to an emergency where prompt reflexes may be of great importance. As the New York Court of Appeals said in People v. Scott (1984), 63 N.Y.2d 518, 528-29, 473 N.E.2d 1, 6, 483 N.Y.S.2d 649, 654: 'The State is entitled in the interest of public safety to bring all available resources to bear, without having to spell out the exact efficiency coefficient of each component and of the separate effects of any particular component.' Third, the carnage caused by drinking and then driving is so serious it warrants resort to both types of apprehension-stopping automobiles which are being driven erratically and roadblocks to detect drunken drivers before they drive in an erratic manner.
The National Transportation Safety Board's Safety Study on deterrence of drunk driving recognizes the deterrent potential of drunk-driving roadblocks. The study points out that they preclude drunk drivers from assuming they will escape trouble simply by driving cautiously. In addition, the study points out that sobriety checkpoints are visible aspects that drunk driving is being combated and they afford police the opportunity to observe a larger number of motorists than would be possible during typical patrol procedures. Admittedly the possibility that a driver will face a roadblock on his way home will not discourage all drunk driving, but on the basis of common sense alone one must conclude that many persons aware of that prospect will have second thoughts about driving."

Bartley, 93 Ill.Dec. at 353, 486 N.E.2d at 886.

Though not directly on point here, our supreme court recently, in Williams v. Crist (1985), Ind., 484 N.E.2d 576, addressed another aspect of the drunk driving problem. It stated:

"As Judge Ratliff points out, the drunken driver is a major source of property damage and personal injury in the United States today. The drunken driver kills more citizens each year than any other group of criminals. As Judge Ratliff notes, in 1980, approximately 26,300 persons were killed in the United States by drunken drivers. Roberts [v. Chaney (1984), Ind.App., 465 N.E.2d 1154, 1161] (Ratliff, J., dissenting). We heartily agree with the statement made by Judge Ratliff in his dissent in Roberts that [driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated thereby endangering one's guest rider is wanton and willful misconduct per se and it is high time we said so.! Id. *170 Probably because the consumption of alcoholic beverages is so widespread and generally accepted as a recreational pastime, legislators, juries and judges, both trial and appellate, have too often treated the problem in a cavalier manner. As Judge Ratliff says, it is high time we publicly state that the intoxicated driver is guilty of willful and wanton misconduct when he deliberately assumes control of an automobile and places it upon a public highway."

Williams, 484 N.E.2d at 578.

Garcia claims in his Petition for Rehearing that this court reweighed the evidence. The evidence summarized in the original opinion is the testimony of Officer Cramer, the only witness to give testimony concerning the roadblock. Officer Mimms, the only other witness in the hearing, confined his testimony to the breathalyzer test administered to Garcia. The trial court found that the facts concerning the roadblock were "virtually without controversy." The controversy was, and is, the court's conclusions reached from undisputed facts.

In its conclusions and order, the trial court, relying upon Bartley, 80 Ill.Dec. 894, 466 N.E.2d 346, (recently reversed by the Illinois Supreme Court, Bartley, 80 Ill.Dec. 894, 486 N.E.2d 880) stated as the crux of its decision that the usual method of enforcing drunk driving laws is intensified law enforcement and patrols. Such methods focus upon observation of the individual motorist whose intoxicated condition can be detected by a trained officer. The state had failed to show any evidence demonstrating the superiority of the roadblocks over the more conventional, less intrusive methods of detection.

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Bluebook (online)
489 N.E.2d 168, 1986 Ind. App. LEXIS 2343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-garcia-indctapp-1986.