State v. McPartland

2012 ME 12, 36 A.3d 881, 2012 Me. LEXIS 12
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedFebruary 2, 2012
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 2012 ME 12 (State v. McPartland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. McPartland, 2012 ME 12, 36 A.3d 881, 2012 Me. LEXIS 12 (Me. 2012).

Opinions

Majority: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, LEVY, and GORMAN, JJ.

Dissent: SILVER, MEAD, and JABAR, JJ.

GORMAN, J.

[¶ 1] Mallory McPartland appeals from a judgment of conviction entered in the Unified Criminal Docket (Bangor, Studstr-up, J.) upon her conditional guilty plea to operating under the influence (Class D) (OUI), 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(1-A)(A), (5) (2011), following the denial of her motion to suppress evidence. McPartland argues that the suppression court erred in concluding that the police officer she encountered at an OUI roadblock had a reasonable articulable suspicion of impairment that was sufficient to justify additional sobriety screening. First, we hold that the [883]*883suppression court correctly concluded that satisfaction of the reasonable articulable suspicion standard justifies directing a motorist to secondary screening following an initial roadblock stop. Then, we affirm its finding and conclusion that the officer had reasonable suspicion to refer McPartland to secondary screening in this case.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] Between the hours of about 9:00 p.m. on August 27 and about 3:00 a.m. on August 28, 2010, the Old Town Police Department conducted an OUI roadblock, or sobriety checkpoint, on Stillwater Avenue in Old Town. Officer Christine McAvoy was among six officers assigned to the roadblock detail. The officers on the roadblock detail were under instructions to stop every vehicle traveling in both the eastbound and westbound lanes on Stillwa-ter Avenue that night. Officer McAvoy testified that officers were instructed to approach each vehicle as it stopped at the roadblock and have a “brief’ conversation with the operator, which in most cases did not extend beyond two minutes.

[¶ 8] At approximately 2:00 a.m., Officer McAvoy observed a vehicle approaching the roadblock faster than the vehicles she had observed earlier. She estimated its speed at thirty-five miles per hour, and she testified that the speed limit was twenty-five miles per hour. The vehicle stopped properly, however, and Officer McAvoy saw no other operation of the vehicle that concerned her.

[¶ 4] When the vehicle stopped, Officer McAvoy introduced herself to the driver, McPartland, and explained that the Old Town Police Department was conducting an OUI safety checkpoint that night. The suppression court found that Officer McA-voy did not observe the “smell of alcohol, slurred speech, open container, watery eyes, or any other of the usual indicia of alcohol consumption.” In conversing with Officer McAvoy, McPartland stated that she had been to a Bangor restaurant or pub and consumed “a martini” at about 10:00 p.m. Based on McPartland’s admission that she had consumed alcohol and the officer’s observation that McPartland had been speeding as she approached the checkpoint, Officer McAvoy directed McPartland to pull to the side of the road for additional questioning and screening.

[¶ 5] At the suppression hearing, the parties stipulated that McPartland was not challenging the constitutional validity of the roadblock.1 Rather, McPartland asserted that Officer McAvoy had not had sufficient justification to refer McPartland to the side of the roadway for additional screening. The court ultimately concluded that McPartland’s admission of alcohol consumption, coupled with Officer McA-voy’s estimate that McPartland had approached the roadblock at an elevated speed, “taken together are sufficient to provide a reasonable suspicion of at least some limited impairment.” The suppression court thus denied McPartland’s motion. McPartland timely appeals pursuant to 15 M.R.S. § 2115 (2011), U.C.D.R.P.— Bangor 11(a)(2), and M.R.App. P. 2.

II. DISCUSSION

[¶ 6] In this case of first impression, we determine what constitutional standard law enforcement authorities must apply when deciding whether a motorist who has [884]*884been lawfully stopped at a sobriety checkpoint may be detained for secondary screening. After adopting this standard, we conclude that the suppression court did not err in denying McPartland’s motion.

A. Reasonable Articulable Suspicion and OUI Roadblocks

[¶ 7] Although properly executed OUI roadblocks withstand constitutional scrutiny, we have not yet addressed what constitutional standard governs referral of a motorist to secondary screening at these checkpoints. When the United States Supreme Court decided Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz in 1990, it addressed only the constitutionality of “the initial stop of each motorist passing through a checkpoint and the associated preliminary questioning.” 496 U.S. 444, 450, 110 S.Ct. 2481, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990). The Sitz Court did, however, suggest that continued “[detention of particular motorists for more extensive field sobriety testing may require satisfaction of an individualized suspicion standard.” Id. at 451, 110 S.Ct. 2481 (emphasis added). Since Sitz, several other appellate courts and a leading Fourth Amendment scholar have stated that the reasonable articulable suspicion standard applies when analyzing the appropriateness of an officer’s decision to direct a motorist stopped at a sobriety checkpoint to secondary screening. See, e.g., United States v. William, 603 F.3d 66, 70 (1st Cir.2010) (concluding that a sobriety checkpoint was reasonable in part because following an initial checkpoint stop “further investigation occurred only if individualized suspicion developed”); Mullinax v. State, 327 Ark. 41, 938 S.W.2d 801, 806 (1997); People v. Bruni, 406 Ill.App.3d 165, 346 Ill.Dec. 84, 940 N.E.2d 84, 86-87 (2010); Commonwealth v. Murphy, 454 Mass. 318, 910 N.E.2d 281, 287-89 (2009); Commonwealth v. Bazinet, 76 Mass.App. Ct. 908, 924 N.E.2d 755, 757 (2010); State v. Eggleston, 109 Ohio App.3d 217, 671 N.E.2d 1325, 1331 (1996); 5 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 10.8(d) at 378-79 (4th ed. 2004) (stating that a law enforcement officer conducting the initial sobriety checkpoint stop “should have an articulable suspicion that the motorist is intoxicated before detaining the motorist for an extended DWI investigation” (quotation marks omitted)).

[¶ 8] Applying the reasonable suspicion standard comports with our prior decisions concerning the constitutional propriety of a motorist’s continued detention after a lawful stop based on a civil traffic infraction. In those cases, we have required the State to establish that the officer had a reasonable articulable suspicion of impairment before the officer extended the motorist’s detention in order to undertake field sobriety tests. State v. King, 2009 ME 14, ¶ 6, 965 A.2d 52 (quoting State v. Wood, 662 A.2d 919, 920 (Me.1995)); see also Murphy, 910 N.E.2d at 288 (stating that “[t]he only factor that distinguishes a secondary screening stop from the more traditional Terry

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Maine v. Douglas E. Wilcox
2023 ME 10 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2023)
State of Maine v. Pilsbury
Maine Superior, 2019
McCoy v. State
303 Ga. 551 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2018)
Tognella v. Talty
Maine Superior, 2018
State of Maine v. John T. Simons
2017 ME 180 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2017)
State v. Simons
2017 ME 180 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2017)
State of Maine v. McComber
Maine Superior, 2016
State of Maine v. John E. Sasso
2016 ME 95 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2016)
State of Maine v. Herbert R. Simmons Sr.
2016 ME 49 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2016)
State of Maine v. Savino
Maine Superior, 2015
Maine v. Rudy
Maine Superior, 2014
State of Maine v. Rose
Maine Superior, 2013
United States v. Sean Sowards
690 F.3d 583 (Fourth Circuit, 2012)
State v. LaForge
2012 ME 65 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2012 ME 12, 36 A.3d 881, 2012 Me. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mcpartland-me-2012.