State v. Klingelhoefer

382 N.W.2d 366, 222 Neb. 219, 1986 Neb. LEXIS 883
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 7, 1986
Docket85-442
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 382 N.W.2d 366 (State v. Klingelhoefer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska 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. Klingelhoefer, 382 N.W.2d 366, 222 Neb. 219, 1986 Neb. LEXIS 883 (Neb. 1986).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

The appellant, Douglas C. Klingelhoefer, was charged in the county court for Buffalo County, Nebraska, with driving while intoxicated, in violation of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-669.07 (Reissue 1984), and with refusing to submit to a chemical test of his breath, in violation of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-669.08 (Reissue 1984). Following trial to a jury, a verdict of guilty on both counts was returned. Upon appeal the district court for Buffalo County, Nebraska, affirmed. Klingelhoefer now appeals to this court, maintaining that his convictions must be set aside for one or more of the following errors: (1) The county court erred in failing to find that Klingelhoefer was entitled to receive Miranda warnings prior to being requested to submit to a chemical test for alcohol; (2) The county court erred in failing to find that Klingelhoefer had a right to counsel before being requested to submit to the chemical test; (3) The county court [221]*221erred in failing to find that Klingelhoefer had a right to be informed that he was entitled to have a separate, independent chemical test taken by a physician of his choice; (4) The county court erred in failing to find that the stopping of Klingelhoefer’s automobile and the subsequent arrest violated his rights guaranteed to him under the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Klingelhoefer further assigns as error that the evidence of the preliminary breath test was improperly admitted in evidence and that § 39-669.08 (the statute requiring a driver to submit to a chemical test) is unconstitutionally vague. We believe that the assignments of error are without merit, and the conviction and sentence must be affirmed.

The facts of the case are essentially without dispute. At approximately 11:30 p.m. on July 23, 1984, a deputy sheriff in the Buffalo County sheriff’s office clocked Klingelhoefer’s automobile with the use of a mobile radar unit as traveling at 65 m. p. h. in a 5 5 m. p. h. zone. The deputy turned around to follow the vehicle and, while doing so, observed the vehicle swerve left of the centerline and pull up close behind another vehicle. The deputy then pulled the speeding vehicle to the side of the road. After investigation the deputy determined that the driver of the car was Klingelhoefer. At that time the deputy detected the odor of alcohol about Klingelhoefer and noticed that Klingelhoefer’s eyes were glassy and bloodshot. He asked Klingelhoefer to perform a variety of field sobriety tests. First, when asked to recite the alphabet, Klingelhoefer correctly stated the letters from A to O, and after O said “Z.” Second, when asked to count from 20 to 10 backwards, Klingelhoefer correctly counted from 20 to 15, and then said “15,13,15,14,10,9,’’and then stopped. Third, when requested to touch the tip of his index finger on each hand to the tip of his nose, Klingelhoefer touched the second joint of each finger to his nose. Fourth, Klingelhoefer was asked to walk heel to toe seven steps forward, turn, and walk heel to toe four steps back. In performing the test, Klingelhoefer did not place the heel of his shoe to the toe of his shoe, and when he was turning around he nearly fell over backwards. Fifth, when.asked to balance on one leg, Klingelhoefer nearly fell over.

[222]*222At that point the deputy requested Klingelhoefer to take a preliminary breath test. Klingelhoefer failed the test. The deputy then placed Klingelhoefer under arrest and transported him to the Buffalo County sheriff’s office. Upon arrival at the sheriff’s office, the deputy read to Klingelhoefer the implied consent postarrest advisement form. He was not given a Miranda-type warning, nor was he afforded the right to contact an attorney.

When requested at the sheriff’s office to take a breath test, Klingelhoefer refused to do so until the operator of the machine, a deputy sheriff in uniform, produced the certificate showing that the deputy sheriff was certified to operate the machine. When the certificate was not produced, Klingelhoefer refused to take the test. He also stated that he would not take the test because he was not sure whether the officers in the room were police officers, though each was wearing a uniform of the Buffalo County sheriff’s office. Klingelhoefer was once again asked to blow into the machine, and he would not accept the mouthpiece or tube. At that point he was cited for both driving while intoxicated and refusing to submit to a chemical test, as well as for speeding.

A number of the issues may be quickly disposed of by reason of either our recent holdings in Fulmer v. Jensen, 221 Neb. 582, 379 N.W.2d 736 (1986), or by reason of earlier decisions which have firmly established the law in this jurisdiction.

In resolving this case we need, however, to separate the two charges. We turn first, then, to the assignments raised with regard to driving while intoxicated. There is little serious question that the deputy sheriff had probable cause to stop Klingelhoefer. He clocked him doing 65 m.p.h. in a 55 m.p.h. zone, in violation of law. Additionally, Klingelhoefer was observed to be tailgating and swerving left of the centerline. In State v. Nowicki, 209 Neb. 640, 645-46, 309 N.W.2d 89, 93 (1981), we said:

“ ‘[T]he test of probable cause for a warrantless arrest is whether at the moment the facts and circumstances within their (the officers’) knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the petitioner had [223]*223committed or was committing an offense.’ ”

One cannot seriously argue that, based upon the officer’s observation of Klingelhoefer’s operation of his motor vehicle, the smell of alcohol about him, his glassy, bloodshot eyes, and his inability to successfully complete any of the field sobriety tests, the deputy did not have probable cause to arrest Klingelhoefer. The assignment is simply without merit.

Furthermore, the evidence was sufficient to submit the case to the jury, and, as we observed in State v. Warnke, 221 Neb. 625, 627, 380 N.W.2d 241, 242 (1986):

[I]t is not for this court to accept one version of the case over another .... In determining the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction, it is not the province of this court to resolve conflicts in the evidence, pass on the credibility of witnesses, determine the plausibility of explanations, or weigh the evidence. Such matters are for the trier of fact, and the verdict must be sustained if, taking the view most favorable to the State, there is sufficient evidence to support it.

Klingelhoefer’s claim that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of driving under the influence of alcohol is simply without merit.

That leaves us, then, with only one remaining question regarding Klingelhoefer’s conviction for driving while under the influence of alcohol. That question is whether it was reversible error for the trial court to admit over objections results of the preliminary breath test in the presence of the jury.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
382 N.W.2d 366, 222 Neb. 219, 1986 Neb. LEXIS 883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-klingelhoefer-neb-1986.