State v. Richards

229 N.W.2d 229, 1975 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1119
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMay 21, 1975
Docket57343
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 229 N.W.2d 229 (State v. Richards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Richards, 229 N.W.2d 229, 1975 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1119 (iowa 1975).

Opinion

McCORMICK, Justice.

Defendant appeals her conviction by jury and sentence for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of an alcoholic beverage (OMVUI) in violation of § 321.281, The Code. She contends the trial court erred in overruling her pretrial motion to suppress evidence relating to a blood test for alcoholic content. We hold the motion should have been sustained and therefore reverse the trial court.

Two questions are presented. First, did the defendant waive the motion to suppress by disclaiming any objection to admissibility of two implied consent forms at trial? *231 Second, if not, did the trial court err in overruling the motion to suppress?

At about 11:30 p. m. December 1, 1973, trooper Larry Stanislav of the Iowa Highway Patrol was driving north through the town of Milford. He saw an automobile driven by defendant turn in the path of an oncoming vehicle, almost causing a collision. Defendant’s vehicle was stopped in a parking lot when Stanislav caught up with it. The officer asked defendant to get out of her car. He noted various symptoms of intoxication and placed her under arrest for OMVUI.

Stanislav placed defendant in his patrol car and started to take her to the sheriff’s office in Spirit Lake. On the way he gave her the Miranda warning and then explained the implied consent procedure to her. He told her that if she refused to take a blood test her driver’s license would be revoked for a period of time. He asked her if she would submit to a blood test. His request was oral, not written. She asked the officer what he would do in her circumstances. Stanislav told her he could not advise her but could only ask if she would take the test. She repeated her inquiry five or six times and he gave the same answer each time. Then she solicited his advice “as a friend.” He told her that if he was in her position he would take the test. She responded, “I guess I might as well.”

They proceeded to the Dickinson County Hospital, located near highway 71 between Milford and Spirit Lake. There, while a nurse was preparing to withdraw the blood, Stanislav filled out a printed form requesting the nurse to withdraw the specimen. He completed it before the blood was withdrawn. The time of request was shown as 11:49 p. m. Although he did not hand the form to the nurse, it was on a counter about two feet from the nurse, she saw it before she withdrew the blood, and she knew what it was. After the blood was withdrawn, Stanislav delivered the form to her and asked her to sign it, acknowledging the request. The nurse did so.

After placing the blood specimen in the hospital refrigerator, Stanislav took defendant to the sheriff’s office in Spirit Lake and started work on an OMVUI report. During the course of that work he filled out an implied consent form, which included a written request that defendant submit to a blood test. The time of request was shown on the form as 12:47 a. m., despite the fact the blood sample had actually been taken almost an hour earlier.

By then defendant had obtained counsel. Stanislav presented the form to defendant, asking her to sign it. Upon advice of counsel, she did sign it although she did not check the place where she was to indicate whether she consented to or refused the test.

In her pretrial motion to suppress evidence of the blood test, defendant asserted two deficiencies in the blood test procedure. One was failure of the officer to make a timely written request of defendant to submit to the blood test. The other was failure of the officer to make a timely written request of the nurse to withdraw the specimen.

The motion was submitted to Judge Murray S. Underwood. He found the procedure substantially complied with the requirements of the implied consent statute and overruled the motion. Judge Richard W. Cooper presided at trial. Immediately before trial, defendant renewed her motion to suppress and requested a standing objection to evidence of the blood test. Judge Cooper held Judge Underwood’s ruling to be “the law of the case” and overruled the motion. He allowed the standing objection but said it would be overruled throughout the trial.

Defendant’s appeal challenges Judge Underwood’s ruling. In resisting, the State alleges that defendant during trial waived any error in Judge Underwood’s ruling and that, in any event, the ruling was correct.

I. We must first decide the question of waiver. In doing so we are handicapped by an incomplete record. The parties caused only a portion of the record to be tran *232 scribed. That portion does not include the offer of the blood test analysis. Defendant asserts in her brief that when the test result was offered, her counsel objected to it as he had in the pretrial motion. The State does not argue otherwise. Instead, the State relies solely on the part of the trial record in which the implied consent forms were offered into evidence.

When the form containing the written request to the nurse to withdraw the blood specimen was offered at trial, counsel for defendant brought out the circumstances surrounding its execution as in the pretrial hearing. Then counsel said he had no objection to admissibility of the exhibit. The circumstances surrounding execution of the belated written request to defendant that she submit to the blood test were also shown. When that exhibit was offered, counsel for defendant said, “I have no objection to the form.”

The State acknowledges the rule that when a defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress evidence is overruled, appellate review will be accorded on proper assignment as to the record then made without renewal of the objection when the evidence is offered at trial. State v. Untiedt, 224 N.W.2d 1, 3 (Iowa 1974). However, the State argues the rule is inapplicable when at trial the defendant affirmatively disclaims objection to the same evidence. Cf. State v. Vest, 225 N.W.2d 151, 152 (Iowa 1975).

When the trial record is sufficient to show a conscious and intentional relinquishment of a pretrial objection to evidence, the pretrial objection is waived. Lawn v. United States, 355 U.S. 339, 352-355, 78 S.Ct. 311, 319-320, 2 L.Ed.2d 311, 331-333 (1958). This is analogous to the rule that the right to attack instructions in a motion for new trial in a criminal case is waived by a presubmission express disclaimer of exceptions. State v. Dague, 206 N.W.2d 93, 95 (Iowa 1973); State v. Hartung, 239 Iowa 414, 423 — 424, 30 N.W.2d 491, 497 (1948).

The issue here is whether the record shows a conscious and intentional relinquishment by defendant of her pretrial objection to evidence of the blood analysis. The State, in its amendment to defendant’s abstract of the record, included the parts of the transcript showing the offer and admission of the two implied consent forms. It did not include the part showing Judge Cooper’s ruling on the renewed motion to suppress in which he gave defendant a standing objection to evidence of the blood analysis and held the objection would stand overruled throughout trial.

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

Related

State of Iowa v. James Curtis Craig III
Court of Appeals of Iowa, 2015
State of Iowa v. Charles David Brown
Court of Appeals of Iowa, 2015
State of Iowa v. Nicholas D. Stephens
Court of Appeals of Iowa, 2015
State of Iowa v. Aaron James Nelson
Court of Appeals of Iowa, 2015
State of Iowa v. Carlos Jimenez-Reyes
Court of Appeals of Iowa, 2014
State Of Iowa Vs. Jeffrey Alan Fischer
Supreme Court of Iowa, 2010
State v. Fischer
785 N.W.2d 697 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2010)
State v. Bernhard
657 N.W.2d 469 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2003)
State v. Green
470 N.W.2d 15 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1991)
Hoefer v. Wisconsin Education Ass'n Insurance Trust
470 N.W.2d 336 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1991)
State v. Kelly
430 N.W.2d 427 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1988)
Henry v. Iowa Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division
426 N.W.2d 383 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1988)
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. v. Rowe
424 N.W.2d 235 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1988)
Heidemann v. Sweitzer
375 N.W.2d 665 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1985)
State v. Steadman
350 N.W.2d 172 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1984)
State v. Meissner
315 N.W.2d 738 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1982)
State v. Musso
309 N.W.2d 154 (Court of Appeals of Iowa, 1981)
State v. Schlemme
301 N.W.2d 721 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1981)
State v. Smith
272 N.W.2d 859 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1978)
State v. Parkinson
389 A.2d 1 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
229 N.W.2d 229, 1975 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-richards-iowa-1975.