State v. Ohm

197 P.3d 1136, 224 Or. App. 390, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1746
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 10, 2008
DocketD052398T; A130976
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 197 P.3d 1136 (State v. Ohm) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ohm, 197 P.3d 1136, 224 Or. App. 390, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1746 (Or. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

*392 SCHUMAN, P. J.

Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII), ORS 813.010, assigning error to the trial court’s denial of her motion to suppress evidence that she refused to submit to a breath test. She argues that evidence of her refusal was inadmissible for two reasons: first, because the refusal occurred without the advice of counsel and was therefore fatally tainted; and second, because she had a constitutional right to refuse the test and the state cannot use the invocation of a constitutional right as evidence of guilt. We rejected the second argument in State v. Gefre, 137 Or App 77, 83-84, 903 P2d 386 (1995), rev den, 323 Or 483 (1996), and again in State v. Greenough, 216 Or App 426, 430-31, 173 P3d 1227 (2007), rev den, 344 Or 280 (2008), and we here reject it yet again without further discussion. We agree with defendant that the evidence of her refusal resulted from an uncounselled decision, but we conclude that the error was harmless. We therefore affirm.

The relevant facts are not in dispute. Officer Schneider arrested defendant for DUII. At the police station, he provided her with a telephone, telephone books, and her own cell phone. He then asked her if she would take a breath test. According to his testimony,

“[a]t first she said she didn’t know what to do, that she wanted to ask someone. And I asked her if she wanted to ask someone what to do, and she said yes. And I told her again that she was free to use those phones and phone books to call anybody she wanted to if she wanted to ask for advice; at which point she told me she did not want to call anyone.”

What happened next is captured in the following colloquy between defense counsel and the officer:

“[COUNSEL]: Did you go then and say, I’ll — if you want to make a call, I’ll leave the room so you can talk in private?
“[OFFICER SCHNEIDER]: No, I did not.
“[COUNSEL]: Okay. Did you offer her privacy?
“[OFFICER SCHNEIDER]: No.”

*393 Schneider further testified that, after the 15-minute observation period that is required before conducting a breath test, “I asked her again what she wanted to do, if she wanted to take the breath test, and at that time she told me, and I quote, ‘I don’t want to take the test,’ ” a statement that Schneider recorded as a refusal. At a pretrial hearing, defendant submitted a motion to suppress evidence of her refusal to submit to a breath test. The court denied that motion, and defendant was subsequently convicted by a jury.

On appeal, defendant renews her argument that she was denied her right to counsel under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution 1 because she was not afforded an opportunity to consult an attorney in private before deciding whether to take the breath test and that evidence of her refusal should therefore have been suppressed. 2 We agree with defendant that she was not afforded her right to counsel. In State v. Spencer, 305 Or 59, 74-75, 750 P2d 147 (1988), the Supreme Court held that “under the right to counsel clause in Article I, section 11, an arrested driver has the right upon request to a reasonable opportunity to obtain legal advice before deciding whether to submit to a breath test.” The court expanded on its description of that right in State v. Durbin, 335 Or 183, 193-94, 63 P3d 576 (2003), holding “that a driver arrested for DUII has, upon invoking the right to counsel, the right to a reasonable opportunity to consult privately with counsel before deciding whether to submit to a breath test.” (Emphasis added.) We applied that holding in State v. Matviyenko, 212 Or App 125, 127-30, 157 P3d 268 (2007), concluding that, where the defendant stated that he wanted to call an attorney and the officer provided him with a telephone and telephone books but did not leave the room, *394 the officer’s presence in the room interfered with the defendant’s right to counsel. We stated,

“[A]n officer may be justified in remaining in the room until contact with an attorney is made in order to ensure that the suspect actually calls an attorney rather than using the telephone for some inappropriate purpose. However, when a DUII arrestee has asked to call an attorney, if an officer intends to remain seated in the room until the call is made, we think that the onus is properly on the officer to inform the arrestee — before the call is made — that, once he or she contacts an attorney, privacy will be afforded.”

Id. at 130.

The right delineated by these cases is the right to have an opportunity to consult with counsel. Defendant asserts that a driver arrested for DUII has the right to consult privately not just with counsel, but with anyone. She relies on language from State v. Newton, 291 Or 788, 636 P2d 393 (1981), and Moore v. Motor Vehicles Division, 293 Or 715, 652 P2d 794 (1982). In Newton, 291 Or at 807, the court referred to “[fjreedom of an arrested person to communicate” and “liberty to communicate as he chose”; in Moore, 293 Or at 719, the court described Newton as “holding that an arrested person is entitled to communicate with counsel or others and that the police must reasonably accommodate a request to do so unless it would interfere with their duties.” Neither of these cases involves a defendant’s right to counsel, under either the federal or Oregon constitution. Only three justices relied on a constitutional source in Newton; one justice concurred on statutory grounds, Newton, 291 Or at 813 (Tongue, J., specially concurring), and three dissented, id. at 815, 818 (Lent, Linde, and Peterson, JJ., dissenting). The plurality relied not on the right to counsel, but on the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Id. at 806-07. In Moore, the court reached no constitutional question; it did, however, state hypothetically that an unjustified refusal to allow a person to speak with a lawyer deprives that person of “liberty,” which we take as a reference, as in the Newton plurality opinion, to the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus, to the extent that Newton and Moore refer to a right to consult with a nonlawyer, that right derives from the Due Process Clause.

*395 Durbin and Matviyenko, on the other hand — the cases holding that the right to consult with counsel implies the right to do so in private

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
197 P.3d 1136, 224 Or. App. 390, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1746, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ohm-orctapp-2008.