State v. Myers

271 N.E.2d 245, 26 Ohio St. 2d 190, 55 Ohio Op. 2d 447, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 481
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1971
DocketNo. 70-352
StatusPublished
Cited by87 cases

This text of 271 N.E.2d 245 (State v. Myers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio 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. Myers, 271 N.E.2d 245, 26 Ohio St. 2d 190, 55 Ohio Op. 2d 447, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 481 (Ohio 1971).

Opinions

Duncan, J.

This appeal calls upon us to decide, first, whether, under R. C. 4511.19(B), the failure to advise a person tested for determination of the concentration of alcohol in the blood that he “may have a physician, or a qualified technician, chemist, registered nurse, or other qualified person of his own choosing administer a chemical test or tests in addition to any administered at the direction of a police officer * * *” requires exclusion from evidence of the police-administered test results. Other courts have answered affirmatively. See Couch v. Rice (1970), 23 Ohio App. 2d 160; Bores v. Rice (1969), 17 Ohio Misc. 163.

It should be noted that here we are not confronted by any question of constitutional magnitude which might place this issue within the purview of the exclusionary rule first enunciated by the United States Supreme Court. See Mapp v. Ohio (1961), 367 U. S. 643, and, generally, State v. Cowans (1967), 10 Ohio St. 2d 96.

The United States Supreme Court has held that where a defendant refused to consent to a taking of his blood sample for chemical analysis, a blood sample taken over his objection and without his consent was admissible in evidence. In so holding, the court denied the contention that such procedure violated the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, or the Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Schmerber v. California (1966), 384 U. S. 757. See, also, Breithaupt v. Abram (1957), 352 U. S. 432.

Rather than being faced with a constitutional problem in the case at bar, we are confronted with a statutory requirement that the person “shall be so advised,” with no express sanction provided for the failure of the police officer to do so. With that in mind, we must look to the statutory rule in this state that the reversal of a lower court’s conviction on the basis of “the admission or ¿ejection of any evidence offered against or for the accused” shall not be had “unless it affirmatively appears on the record that the accused was or may have been prejudiced thereby.” R. C. 2945.83. Accordingly, in the absence of a showing of prejudice having accrued to a defendant by [197]*197the failure to advise him of his right to have an independent test made, as provided in R. C. 4511.19(B), the results of a chemical test so administered may not be excluded from evidence. The record before us discloses no prejudice accruing to appellee from the admission of evidence regarding the chemical test performed; nor does it disclose evidence sufficient to support a finding as a matter of law that this test was improperly administered or its results erroneous.

In reaching this result, we are aware that there is no effective leverage available to a defendant which may be employed to compel police officials to advise a suspect as required by R. C. 4511.19(B). This was, and is, a matter for the General Assembly. In our view, there is no judicial machinery available to produce the missing sanction. Moreover, whether or not the presence of an attorney representing defendant at the police station waives or makes unnecessary the advice the statute requires to be given a suspect is mooted by our conclusion that the test results were otherwise admissible.

In dealing with appellant’s claim that the state’s argument and the trial court’s charge was free of error, we must look to the nature of legal presumptions in general, and, specifically, the presumption embodied in R. C. 4511.-19(B). Generally, “a presumption is a procedural device which is resorted to only in the absence of evidence by the party in whose favor a presumption would otherwise operate; and where a litigant introduces evidence tending to prove a fact, either directly or by inference, which for procedural purposes would be presumed in the absence of such evidence, the presumption never arises and the case must be submitted to the jury without any reference to the presumption in either a special instruction or a general charge.” Ayers v. Woodard (1957), 166 Ohio St. 138, paragraph three of the syllabus. See, also, In re Breece (1962), 173 Ohio St. 542, 554; Shepherd v. Midland Mutual Ins. Co. (1949), 152 Ohio St. 6.

Although the decision in Ayers v. Woodard, supra, [198]*198generally has been a settling influence in the hectic problems presented to the courts by presumptions, knotty problems remain. The opinion states, at page 144:

“* * * Conversely, when either party introduces substantial credible evidence tending to prove a fact which would otherwise be presumed, the presumption either never arises or it disappears. * * *” (Emphasis added.)

In Ayers, the court decided that when plaintiff introduced substantial credible evidence from which the jury could infer agency, an issue in the case, the common-law presumption of agency was removed from the case and became a forbidden subject for a part of the court’s charge.

In order to decide whether the presumption problem in the instant case comes within the rule of law announced in paragraph three of the Ayers syllabus, we examine the nature of the presumption established by R. C. 4511.19 and the fact posture of the case at bar.

Specifically, R. C. 4511.19(B) reads: “If there was at that time a concentration of fifteen hundredths of one per cent or more by weight of alcohol in the defendant’s blood, it shall be presumed that the defendant was under the influence of alcohol. * * *”

In so providing, the General Assembly has expressed its conviction that the relationship between the objective determination by chemical test of the percentage of alcohol by weight in the blood (.15% or more), and its effect on people, is so well scientifically established that it need not be demonstrated by evidence, and may take the place of evidence at trial. The purpose of the presumption is to eliminate the need for expert testimony which would otherwise be necessary to relate the numerical figure representing a percentage of alcohol by weight in the blood as shown by the result of a chemical test, with the common understanding of being under the influence of alcohol. See Lister v. England (D. C. C. A. 1963), 195 A. 2d 260; State v. Protokowics (1959), 55 N. J. Sup. 598, 151 A. 2d 396; Vore v. State (1954), 158 Neb. 222, 63 N. W. 2d 141. When the test results are in evidence, the evidence that the presumption supplies is the correlation between a scientific fact, [199]*199the results of the test, and human behavior; that is, that all persons who test .15% or more are under the influence of alcohol.

The arresting officer and other police officers gave testimony descriptive of how appellee appeared to them; evidence which is commonly termed “physical signs” of the influence of alcohol. They also stated that in their op-pinions the appellee was under the influence of alcohol.

Citing the cases Ayers v. Woodard, supra, and Toledo v. Gfell (1958), 107 Ohio App.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
271 N.E.2d 245, 26 Ohio St. 2d 190, 55 Ohio Op. 2d 447, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-myers-ohio-1971.