State v. Peprah

2006 Ohio 4222, 858 N.E.2d 436, 139 Ohio Misc. 2d 6
CourtFranklin County Municipal Court
DecidedMay 11, 2006
DocketNos. 2005 TRC 127974 and 2005 TRC 139818
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2006 Ohio 4222 (State v. Peprah) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Franklin County Municipal Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Peprah, 2006 Ohio 4222, 858 N.E.2d 436, 139 Ohio Misc. 2d 6 (Ohio Super. Ct. 2006).

Opinion

Julia L. Dorrian, Judge.

Procedural History, Stipulations, and Framing of the Issues

{¶ 1} On May 17, 2005, the defendant filed a motion to suppress/in limine (“motion”). Several continuances were granted at the request of the parties. On November 9, 2005, a hearing was held on the motion. The state of Ohio was represented by Prosecutor Natalia Harris, and the defendant was represented by attorney Mark Fagin. Sworn testimony was taken, and a court reporter was present. The motion was denied.

{¶ 2} On March 27, 2005, the defendant was arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, pursuant to R.C. 4511.19(A)(1).1 This impairment charge, in addition to accompanying charges of failure to yield to a public safety vehicle, a marked-lanes violation, and speeding, were filed in case No. 2005 TRC 127974. At the hearing, the defendant waived his motion to suppress issues relating to the initial stop, the field sobriety tests, probable cause, and the Miranda warnings. The defendant indicated that he would not challenge the impairment violation by way of a pretrial motion, but, rather, he would challenge it at trial.

{¶ 3} In an accompanying case, case No. 2005 TRC 139818, the defendant was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, pursuant to R.C. 4511.19(A)(5),2 based on the results of the urine test that the defendant took on March 27, 2005. The result of the urine test was .196, which is considered a per se low test violation for urine.

{¶ 4} In his motion to suppress/in limine, the defendant challenged whether the urine was (1) collected on a timely basis, (2) placed in an appropriate container, (3) accurately labeled, (4) accurately stored, (5) collected and tested with no break in the chain of custody, (6) tested with a machine approved, maintained, and calibrated in accordance with the Ohio Department of Health (“ODH”) regulations, (7) tested pursuant to a method approved by the ODH, and (8) tested by qualified personnel. The defendant summarized by stating that the results of the urine test are unreliable. At the hearing, however, the defendant and Prosecutor Harris stipulated to the following:

(1) Current ODH regulations do not require a second void urine sample to be taken and tested to determine violations of R.C. 4511.19(A)(5);
[9]*9(2) In the instant case a second void urine sample was not taken or tested;
(3) In the instant case only a first void urine sample was taken and tested;
(4) Applicable ODH regulations regarding the collection, handling and analysis of the first void urine sample were substantially complied with by the Bexley Police Department;
(5) There exists no documented evidence of what happened to the first void urine sample between 10:03 a.m. and 10:50 a.m. on March 28, 2005, the date of testing, however the defendant waives any challenge regarding chain of custody and its effect on substantial compliance with ODH regulations;
(6) The arresting officer, Officer Shwver, did not smell an odor of alcoholic beverage about the defendant until the defendant was outside his vehicle, and Officer Shwver described the odor as being “slight”;
(7) The Bexley Police Department had a properly working breathalyzer machine at the time defendant gave a first void urine sample.

{¶ 5} At the hearing, after making the foregoing stipulations, the defendant summarized his issues as follows: (1) the results of the test were unreliable pursuant to the Daubert3 standard of reliability and (2) ODH abused its discretion in promulgating rules for urine testing by not requiring a second void before testing. Prosecutor Harris objected to the defendant’s framing of the issues in such a manner, because the defendant did not articulate them in this manner in his motion. The defendant argued that the prosecutor was well aware of the issue relating to second void and that she was in no way prejudiced by the lack of notice because she had prepared and brought in Mr. Kucmanic as an expert witness. The prosecutor also argued that the issues were not relevant. The court, after having considered State v. Vega,4, State v. Gordon,5 State v. Cox,6 and State v. Woerner;7 ruled that it was not appropriate to hear the defendant’s Daubert reliability argument. Rather, the court would hear only the defendant’s abuse-of-discretion argument at that time.

{¶ 6} The court will now address the defendant’s abuse-of-discretion argument.

[10]*10Defendant’s Abuse-of-Discretion Argument

{¶ 7} The defendant argues that ODH has abused its discretion in promulgating regulations regarding urine testing because the regulations do not require that a second-void urine sample be taken and tested. Central to and implicit in the defendant’s argument is his belief that (1) blood-alcohol content is the most reliable indicator of a person’s impairment due to alcohol consumption and (2) by including subdivision (A)(1)(e) in R.C. 4511.19, the General Assembly intended to correlate subdivision (A)(1)(e) regarding urine per se level to subdivision (A)(1)(b) regarding whole blood per se level.

{¶ 8} Although this court determined that a Daubert reliability argument was not appropriate at the hearing, the defendant’s reliability argument dominated his expert’s testimony as well as his hearing brief and his reply brief. However, the defendant did very little to address or support his belief that the General Assembly intended to correlate subdivision (A)(1)(e) regarding urine per se level to subdivision (A)(1)(b) regarding whole blood per se level. In fact, although requested to do so by this court, the defendant did not address the intent of the General Assembly in his hearing brief. In his reply brief the defendant stated, “The Court did not explain how the legislative history would be relevant to the issue presented. Since an interpretation of R.C. 4511.19 is not in controversy, the contribution to the arguments present by the legislative history is not entirely clear. It is obvious that the legislative history has no bearing on the factual question of whether a first void of urine, as compared to a second void is reliable.” The defendant has never provided this court with a review of the legislative history of R.C. 4511.19, as he was requested to do. Instead, the defendant relies on his expert’s assertion that it is “obvious” that the General Assembly intended to correlate urine-alcohol level to blood-alcohol level because the statute uses a consistent correlation of approximately 1.4 to 1.0 between urine-alcohol levels and blood-alcohol levels. When questioned by this court at the hearing, the defendant’s expert witness, Dr. Staubus, testified that he was not present at the legislative hearings regarding promulgation of R.C. 4511.19 or 3701.143 but that “somebody must have told them” the correlation. Dr. Staubus also testified that he is making an assumption based on the correlation, because otherwise it is a “strange coincidence.”

{¶ 9} Contrary to the defendant’s belief, interpretation of R.C.

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Bluebook (online)
2006 Ohio 4222, 858 N.E.2d 436, 139 Ohio Misc. 2d 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-peprah-ohmunictfrankli-2006.