State v. Korhn

678 A.2d 492, 41 Conn. App. 874, 1996 Conn. App. LEXIS 340
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJune 25, 1996
Docket14345
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 678 A.2d 492 (State v. Korhn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Korhn, 678 A.2d 492, 41 Conn. App. 874, 1996 Conn. App. LEXIS 340 (Colo. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

HENNESSY, J.

The defendant, Robert Korhn, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of operating a motor vehicle while under the influ[875]*875ence of intoxicating liquor in violation of General Statutes § 14-227a (a) (2).1 The defendant claims that General Statutes § 14-227a (c) (6),2 as amended by No. 93-371, § 2, of the 1993 Public Acts,3 is unconstitutional as written or applied in this case and that the court’s charge to the jury, which outlined and applied the presumption set forth in said section as to the defendant’s blood alcohol content (BAC) at the time of the alleged offense, resulted in a denial of due process in violation of the fifth and fourteenth amendments to the United States constitution.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. After spending several hours in a New London bar, the defendant proceeded onto Interstate 95, where an off-duty state trooper observed him traveling at a high rate of speed. The trooper stopped the defendant [876]*876and administered two field sobriety tests. After concluding that the defendant was intoxicated, he radioed the Troop E barracks by radio and asked that an on-duty trooper come to the scene. After observing the appearance of the defendant, the responding trooper administered a field sobriety test, concluded that the defendant was intoxicated and arrested him.4

The defendant contends that the rebuttable presumption set forth in § 14-227a (c), which provides that the level of alcohol in a person’s blood is the same at the time of his operation of a motor vehicle as it is at the time of the blood alcohol test performed one and one-half hours later, is entirely irrational. Therefore, he argues that even though the trial court may charge the presumption as a permissive inference, the statute violates his right to due process because its suggested conclusion is not one that reason and common sense justify in light of the facts before the jury. The defendant also contends that the presumption shifts the burden of proof from the state to the defendant on an essential element of the offense, namely, that the defendant’s BAC was greater than 0.10 percent at the time he was operating the vehicle. The state contends that the analysis of the constitutionality of the rebuttable presumption in the statute must be viewed in its application to the defendant. The state asserts that the proper inquiry is whether it is reasonably likely that the jury applied the instruction from the court so as unconstitutionally to shift to the defendant the burden of persuasion on an essential element of the offense and whether the jury could rationally make the connection permitted by the inference.

[877]*877In State v. Geisler, 22 Conn. App. 142, 160-62, 576 A.2d 1283, cert. denied, 215 Conn. 819, 576 A.2d 547 (1990), vacated on other grounds, 498 U.S. 1019, 111 S. Ct. 663, 112 L. Ed. 2d 657, on remand, 25 Conn. App. 282, 594 A.2d 985 (1991), aff'd, 222 Conn. 672, 610 A.2d 1225 (1992), this court determined, under General Statutes (Rev. to 1985) § 14-227a (c) as amended by Public Acts 1985, No. 85-596, what evidence was necessary to prove a violation of § 14-227a (a) (2). In Geisler, the state was required to prove that the vehicle was operated on a public highway while the driver’s BAC was 0.10 percent or higher. State v. Geisler, supra, 159. General Statutes (Rev. to 1985) § 14-227a (c), as amended by Public Acts 1985, No. 85-596, set forth six preconditions for the admissibility of a chemical test. State v. Geisler, supra, 160. If the six preconditions were met, the chemical test could be used to show the BAC of the accused. Id., 160-61. Precondition (5) required that “ ‘an additional chemical test of the same type [be] performed at least thirty minutes after the initial test was performed’ id., 160; and precondition (6), as then written, provided that “ ‘evidence [must be] presented which demonstrates that the test results and the analysis thereof accurately reflect the blood alcohol content at the time of the alleged offense.’ ” (Emphasis in original.) Id., 160-61; see General Statutes (Rev. to 1987) § 14-227a (c) (5) and (6) (incorporating 1985 amendment). This court interpreted subdivision (6) to require that expert testimony specifically relate the BAC at the time of the tests to the BAC at the time of operation of the vehicle. State v. Geisler, supra, 161-62.

Subsequent to the Geisler decision, in Public Acts 1993, No. 93-371, the legislature amended the “analysis thereof’ language of § 14-227a (c) so that the state could prove a violation of § 14-227a (a) (2) without the need for extrapolation testimony. The legislature inserted a rebuttable presumption that provides that the BAC at [878]*878the time of operation will be presumed to be the same as it was at the time of the first test without extrapolation testimony. General Statutes § 14-227a (c). If the result of the second test is higher than that of the first test and measures 0.12 percent or less, the presumption is invalid and expert testimony relating the BAC to the time of the incident is required. General Statutes § 14-227a (c).

Connecticut has joined a growing number of states that do not generally require expert testimony to relate a driver’s BAC at the time of the test to the driver’s BAC at the time of operation. The laws in these states provide that if the test is administered within a certain time after the offense, the chemical test results can be used to infer a violation. State v. Geisler, supra, 22 Conn. App. 162-63, citing Erickson v. Municipality of Anchorage, 662 P.2d 963, 964-65 (Alaska App. 1983) (presumption of violation if administered within four hours); People v. Pritchard, 162 Cal. App. 3d Sup. 13, 16, 209 Cal. Rptr. 314 (1984) (rebuttable presumption of illegal BAC if within three hours); State v. Larson, 429 N.W.2d 674, 676-77 (Minn. App. 1988) (within two hours); People v. Mertz, 68 N.Y.2d 136, 139, 497 N.E.2d 657, 506 N.Y.S.2d 290 (1986) (prima facie case established if administered within two hours); State v. Ulrich, 17 Ohio App. 3d 182, 190, 478 N.E.2d 812 (1984) (within two hours).

Although the defendant wants this court to address the constitutionality of § 14-227a (c) on its face, we decline to do so. Instead, we address the statute as it applies to the defendant in this case. “A party has standing to challenge the constitutionality of a statute only insofar as it has an adverse impact on his own rights. As a general rule, if there is no constitutional defect in the application of the statute to a litigant, he does not have standing to argue that it would be unconstitutional if applied to third parties in hypothetical situations. [879]*879Broadrick v. Oklahoma,

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Bluebook (online)
678 A.2d 492, 41 Conn. App. 874, 1996 Conn. App. LEXIS 340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-korhn-connappct-1996.