State v. Kutik

914 So. 2d 484, 2005 WL 2899325
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 4, 2005
Docket5D04-1349
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 914 So. 2d 484 (State v. Kutik) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Kutik, 914 So. 2d 484, 2005 WL 2899325 (Fla. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

914 So.2d 484 (2005)

STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
Matthew Donald KUTIK, Appellee.

No. 5D04-1349.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

November 4, 2005.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Lori N. Hagan, and Pamela J. Koller, Assistant Attorneys General, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.

William R. Ponall and Michael J. Snure, of Kirkconnell, Lindsey, Snure and Yates, P.A., Winter Park, for Appellee.

THOMPSON, J.

The State appeals an order granting exclusion of Matthew Donald Kutik's ("Kutik") medical records, which contained his blood alcohol test results. Kutik was in an automobile accident resulting in a death.[1] During Kutik's treatment, hospital personnel tested his blood and determined his blood alcohol level. A police officer obtained Kutik's blood alcohol level from his medical records, but did not get his permission to review the medical records and did not request that blood be drawn and tested pursuant to section 316.1933(1), Florida Statutes (2002).[2] Fourteen *485 months after the accident, the State sought a subpoena for Kutik's medical records, with notice of the request to his lawyer, pursuant to section 395.3025, Florida Statutes (2002).[3] Kutik's lawyer objected to the subpoena and sought to exclude Kutik's medical records because the State obtained the records in derogation of the statute; this misconduct precluded application of a good faith exception. After a hearing, the trial court granted the motion to exclude the medical records without recourse for the State to seek a future subpoena. We affirm, finding that the police made no good faith effort to comply with the subpoena and notice requirements of section 395.3025(4)(d). Thus, the State is precluded from issuing a future subpoena for Kutik's medical records. See State v. Johnson, 814 So.2d 390 (Fla.2002).

St. Cloud police officer Brian Demeulenaere ("Demeulenaere"), a traffic homicide investigator, testified during the hearing to exclude medical records that, at approximately 2:00 a.m. on Saturday, 14 December 2002, he investigated a traffic homicide involving Kutik. Two vehicles were involved in the accident. Demeulenaere smelled alcohol coming from Kutik's vehicle and observed beer bottles inside the vehicle. After speaking with Dawn Bays, an accident eyewitness, Demeulenaere determined that Kutik turned in front of a pickup truck, which caused the truck to strike the passenger side of Kutik's car. As a result of the accident, Kutik's front seat passenger was killed and the other occupants in both vehicles were injured. Kutik and one of his passengers were transported to the Orlando Regional Medical Center Orlando ("ORMC"). The other injured parties were taken to ORMC St. Cloud.

Demeulenaere went to ORMC approximately 15 hours after the accident to obtain Kutik's medical records. Kutik was still in the emergency room, but Demeulenaere did not attempt to speak with him. Demeulenaere explained that he could not obtain the records from ORMC until the records department opened on the following Monday. Demeulenaere testified that he had probable cause to believe that Kutik was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident because he observed bottles of alcohol in Kutik's vehicle, detected the odor of alcohol emanating from the vehicle, and learned from Kutik's backseat passenger, Tracy Barrett, that Kutik visited two bars before the accident. Yet, Demeulenaere did not request a blood draw.

On cross examination, Demeulenaere testified that no one reported that Kutik *486 smelled of alcohol when Kutik was taken from his vehicle. Demeulenaere testified that the deceased passenger had a blood alcohol level, and the State stipulated that the truck passengers had alcohol in their blood. Demeulenaere left ORMC after he could not obtain Kutik's medical records. On the Monday after the accident, he went to ORMC St. Cloud, where he obtained the medical records and the blood alcohol test results. To obtain the records, Demeulenaere spoke with the records clerk and gave the clerk a form provided by the St. Cloud Police Department that requested Kutik's blood alcohol records and stated that Kutik had been involved in an automobile accident causing great bodily harm or death.

Demeulenaere believed the purpose of the form was to allow a law enforcement officer with reasonable cause to request a withdrawal of a legal blood sample. However, at the time he requested Kutik's medical records, he did not realize that the form could be used only to obtain a legal blood draw, but not blood alcohol test results.[4] Rather than requesting a blood draw pursuant to section 316.1933, Demeulenaere requested Kutik's medical records because he knew that almost two days had elapsed since the accident and a new blood test would not reflect Kutik's blood alcohol level on the night of the accident. Demeulenaere took the test results to the State Attorney's office, which did not seek a subpoena for Kutik's medical records until 14 months after the accident.

The trial court granted Kutik's motion to exclude his medical records. In its order, the court found that the police made no good faith effort to comply with the subpoena and notice requirements of section 395.3025(4)(d). It held that, pursuant to Johnson, the State was precluded from using Kutik's medical records, even if the medical records were obtained a second time through proper compliance with the subpoena and notice requirements. The court noted that, in Thomas v. State, 820 So.2d 382 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002), rev. denied, 894 So.2d 973 (Fla.2005), the Second District affirmed an order denying a motion to suppress, concluding that "the officer's verbal request for the nurse to tell him the blood test results does not constitute the type of governmental misconduct that would warrant exclusion of the medical records subsequently obtained through the State's subpoena issued after proper notice to Thomas." However, the trial court concluded:

Johnson dictates a finding that the State is now barred from pursuing a second [sic] subpoena with proper notice to Defendant, and subsequently using the medical records obtained from that request. Obviously the supreme court's decision places a premium on the protection of an individual's right to medical privacy. . . . Even though the Court disagrees with the holding in Johnson, it feels constrained to follow it.

The State appeals, arguing two intertwined theories based upon Thomas. First, the State contends that the investigating officer requested and obtained Kutik's blood alcohol test results through a written form that complied with section 316.1933(2)(a).[5] Because Demeulenaere *487 had probable cause to request a legal blood draw to obtain Kutik's blood alcohol level, the court should not have excluded its subpoena request for Kutik's medical records.

Second, the State contends that, because it later attempted to obtain the medical records with a subpoena with notice to Kutik's lawyer, this court should follow the decision of the Second District in Thomas and reverse the trial court. According to the State, Thomas holds that, where an officer improperly obtains the blood alcohol test result, but would have had probable cause to request a legal blood draw, the State should not be prevented from later obtaining the medical records through a properly issued subpoena. We disagree with both contentions.

We find Johnson to be dispositive. In Johnson,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
914 So. 2d 484, 2005 WL 2899325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kutik-fladistctapp-2005.