State v. Stevens

892 P.2d 889, 126 Idaho 822, 1995 Ida. LEXIS 42
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 30, 1995
Docket20693
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 892 P.2d 889 (State v. Stevens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Stevens, 892 P.2d 889, 126 Idaho 822, 1995 Ida. LEXIS 42 (Idaho 1995).

Opinions

YOUNG, Justice Pro Tem.

Ronald Dean Stevens (Stevens) was tried before the Ada County Magistrate Division of the 4th Judicial District on the misdemeanor offense of Driving While Under the Influence of Alcohol in violation of I.C. § 18-8004. After a jury was empaneled and sworn to try the case, the magistrate declared a mistrial and dismissed the action. The state appealed this decision to the district court. The district court ruled that the magistrate had abused his discretion in declaring a mistrial and dismissing the case and remanded the case back to the magistrate’s court for trial. Stevens has appealed, presenting four issues: (1) whether evidence of a percentage likelihood of intoxication based solely upon a horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test is admissible; (2) whether the introduction of this evidence warranted the declaration of a mistrial; (3) whether the knowing introduction of this evidence by the prosecution constituted prosecutorial misconduct warranting a dismissal of the case with prejudice; and (4) whether the dismissal of charges after jeopardy has attached prevents retrial based on statutory, rule based or constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy. The first three of these enumerated issues will be considered together since they are logically combined in the issue whether there was prosecutorial misconduct which warranted the granting of a mistrial and dismissal of the case. For the reasons that follow we rule (1) that the introduction of this evidence by the prosecution did not constitute prosecutorial misconduct warranting the court’s sua sponte declaration of a mistrial and dismissal of the case; and (2) that the dismissal of charges after jeopardy had attached prevents retrial under constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy.

I.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

On an appeal from a decision of a magistrate following an appeal to a district judge sitting as an appellate court, the record is reviewed with due regard for, but independently from, the district court’s decision. See State v. Kenner, 121 Idaho 594, 597, 826 P.2d 1306, 1309 (1992). This Court will uphold the findings of the magistrate court if the findings are supported by substantial and competent evidence. McNelis v. McNelis, 119 Idaho 349, 351, 806 P.2d 442, 444 (1991). However, issues of law are freely reviewed by this Court. In re Mundell, 124 Idaho 152, 153, 857 P.2d 631, 632 (1993).

II.

MATERIAL FACTS

On August 6,1992, Stevens was stopped by Deputy Patrick Calley of the Ada County Sheriffs Office for driving at a speed of 60 m.p.h. in a 30 m.p.h. zone. In the course of that investigation Stevens performed field sobriety tests and a horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test was administered to him by Deputy Steve Russell. On the basis of his performance of these tests, Stevens was then arrested for the misdemeanor offense of Driving While Under the Influence of Alcohol in alleged violation of I.C. § 18-8004. Stevens was then administered two Intoximeter 3000 breath tests. Each of the two samples of the defendant’s breath yielded a result of .11.

A jury trial was commenced on January 12, 1993 before the Honorable Thomas R. Morden. A jury was duly empaneled and sworn. The state then commenced submitting evidence to prove the allegations set forth in its complaint against the defendant.

During the testimony of the first witness, Deputy Calley, defense counsel made a motion for a mistrial and/or a dismissal of this action. (According to Appellant’s Reply Brief, at p. 10, this motion was based upon the perception of the defendant that the state’s first witness had committed perjury.) The magistrate denied this motion.

During the course of the state’s examination of Deputy Steve Russell, the state solicited testimony from him concerning his administration of the HGN test to Mr. Stevens on the date of his arrest. Officer Russell testified that Mr. Stevens demonstrated a nystagmus upon his administration of the test. The record then discloses the following colloquy between the prosecutor and Russell:

[824]*824Q. What did that indicate to you? That test standing on its own?
A. That test standing on its own, that indicated to me that he had a 77 percent chance, with the statistics by the National Traffic Safety Institute, that h — -just that test alone had a 77 percent chance of him being under the influence of alcohol.
Q. Now, where do you base this on? Is this based on your research and your work in this field?
A. Yes, it is.
Q. And based on that test alone, would you have arrested him for DUI? If there were no other field sobriety tests?
A. If I had no other tests, I — all—I conclude all my tests when I do it — that test alone, yes, I would have arrested him for DUI.
Q. Why is that?
A. It’s because of the research done at the National Traffic Safety Institute on the field sobriety tests.
Q. Okay. In your work with — you have all kinds of field sobriety tests. Which is the most reliable indicator to you that an individual is under the influence?
MR. WEIGT [defense counsel]: Objection, Your Honor. I think that’s speculative. Most reliable? What’s he going to base that on?

The magistrate reacted to this objection of defense counsel by removing the jury from the courtroom and questioning the prosecutor as to his belief concerning the admissibility of this evidence. The prosecutor maintained that the evidence was admissible but the magistrate disagreed stating that the state’s witness could only “testify as to whether or not the person failed or passed the test”; that the testimony of the witness that there was a “77 percent chance that this guy is under the influence because of (the defendant’s failure to pass) the horizontal gaze nystagmus test” was “totally inadmissible”, “totally prejudicial”, and that “it should not have been gotten into.” The magistrate then, sua sponte, declared a mistrial. Following the mistrial declaration, the prosecutor stated that he would retry the ease. The court responded by stating that he would not permit a retrial because of “prosecutorial misconduct” and dismissed the case sua sponte. It is clear from the record that the evidence the magistrate found objectionable and prejudicial was the officer’s testimony that the results of the HGN test administered to Stevens, coupled with statistics by the National Traffic Safety Institute, established that there was a 77 percent chance of the defendant being under the influence of alcohol. The record is clear that there was no objection by the defendant to the prosecutor’s question that elicited this testimony and there was no objection or motion to strike the officer’s testimony or conclusions concerning National Traffic Safety Institute statistics.

III.

THE INTRODUCTION OF THIS EVIDENCE BY THE PROSECUTION DID NOT CONSTITUTE PROSECU-TORIAL MISCONDUCT WARRANTING A DISMISSAL OF THE CASE WITH PREJUDICE.

A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
892 P.2d 889, 126 Idaho 822, 1995 Ida. LEXIS 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stevens-idaho-1995.