State v. Tanner

2010 Ohio 5231, 938 N.E.2d 108, 160 Ohio Misc. 2d 54
CourtAthens County Municipal Court
DecidedAugust 11, 2010
DocketNo. 10TRC03094
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2010 Ohio 5231 (State v. Tanner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Athens 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. Tanner, 2010 Ohio 5231, 938 N.E.2d 108, 160 Ohio Misc. 2d 54 (Ohio Super. Ct. 2010).

Opinion

GRIM, Judge.

{¶ 1} This matter came on for evidentiary hearing today, August 3, 2010, upon defendant’s motion to suppress. Defendant, Albert Tanner, was present, represented by his attorney, Douglas J. Francis; the state of Ohio was represented by Lisa A. Eliason, Athens Chief City Prosecutor. Upon consideration of testimony and arguments, the court finds as follows:

FACTS

1. On the evening of May 22, 2010, Captain Lucas Mace received a telephone call at the Glouster Police Department. The caller did not identify himself but reported that a car had run off Congress Run Road into a yard and that the driver was attempting to leave the scene.
2. Congress Run Road is Athens County Road 32 and skirts the eastern corporation limits of the village of Glouster. The road itself is outside the village, but the Glouster police department is the closest law-enforcement agency.
3. Captain Mace radioed the county dispatcher to notify the Ohio Highway Patrol. The dispatcher requested that Mace secure the scene until the Highway Patrol trooper arrived.
4. In addition to his Glouster commission, Mace holds an auxiliary commission with the Athens County Sheriffs Office. This authorizes him to act in the county under the direction of the regular deputies. Glouster and the Athens County Sheriffs Office have a mutual-aid agreement, which authorizes action by the other when requested by the agency having primary territorial jurisdiction.
5. Mace arrived at the scene and observed defendant in the driver’s seat of a vehicle approximately 100 yards from the roadway. He could see ruts in the [57]*57meadow leading from the roadway to the car. Defendant was attempting to drive the ear out of the meadow but could not gain any traction.
6. As Mace approached the vehicle, defendant exited it and attempted to hide behind a tree. Mace ordered defendant to come out and then handcuffed him and placed him in the back seat of the Glouster police cruiser. Mace’s reason for doing so was his belief that defendant would flee before the trooper arrived to investigate. Mace testified that he did not arrest defendant at that time but instead was detaining him for investigation of whether he had been operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (“OVI”).
7. Upon initial contact with defendant, Mace noted that defendant emitted a strong odor of alcohol, had slurred speech, and was slow to respond to directions. From those observations and the accident scene, Mace believed that defendant was under the influence of alcohol.
8. Trooper Steven Daugherty arrived at the scene about 20 minutes later. He removed defendant from the Glouster cruiser and removed the handcuffs from defendant. Daugherty noted that defendant emitted a strong odor of alcohol and that his speech was slurred.
9. After advising defendant of his Miranda rights, Daugherty asked about his consumption of alcohol, and defendant replied that he had consumed six 16-ounce beers that day. Defendant admitted that he had been driving the vehicle when it went off the road, explaining that his dog had bumped the steering wheel. Daugherty did verify that there was a dog in defendant’s vehicle.
10. Daugherty conducted a horizontal gaze nystagmus (“HGN”) test of defendant in substantial compliance with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) guidelines, of which the court takes judicial notice. Defendant scored six of six possible clues of intoxication. The test was given with Daugherty facing the cruiser’s strobe lights.
11. After ten minutes of observation, Daugherty gave defendant a portable breath test on an Aleo-Sensor II device. Such device has previously been found by this court to be a reliable estimator of breath-alcohol content. The result of this first breath test was .175.
12. Daugherty gave defendant a second breath test after waiting another five minutes. He did not change the mouthpiece. The result of the second breath test was .170.
13. Daugherty did not offer defendant the one-leg-stand test or the walk-and-turn test, as he was concerned, based on information from Mace, that defendant might flee.
14. Defendant was arrested for OVI, properly advised of the consequences, and tested .134 on the BAC Datamaster.

[58]*58ISSUES

{¶ 2} Defendant has submitted six issues for the court’s consideration:

A. Mace had no authority to approach defendant outside Glouster village limits.
B. Mace had no authority to detain defendant, because he did not view any misdemeanor violation.
C. Mace had no authority to detain defendant, because he was outside his territorial jurisdiction.
D. Mace had no authority to detain defendant for 20 minutes awaiting the arrival of the trooper.
E. The HGN test is invalid due to the strobe lights.
F. The portable-breath-test results are invalid due to minimal observation time and absence of a new mouthpiece for the second test.

CONCLUSIONS

A. Mace’s initial contact with defendant was a community caretaking function. As the closest law-enforcement officer, he was dispatched to check for injuries and secure the scene. His purpose was not to arrest or to gather evidence but rather to maintain the status quo until an investigating officer could arrive. See Katz, Ohio Arrest, Search and Seizure (2010), Section 17:3, and cases cited therein.

B. R.C. 2935.03 authorizes warrantless arrests for misdemeanors observed by the arresting officer. State v. Lewis (1893), 50 Ohio St. 179, 33 N.E. 405. Although Mace did not see defendant operating a vehicle on a roadway, he did observe him operating a vehicle. R.C. 4511.19(A) prohibits operation of a vehicle under the influence anywhere in the state of Ohio, not just upon public highways. Furthermore, even if an officer arrives on an accident scene after the driver has left the vehicle, an admission by that person that he was driving can satisfy this requirement. Oregon v. Szakovits (1972), 32 Ohio St.2d 271, 61 O.O.2d 496, 291 N.E.2d 742.

C. From the totality of the circumstances, it does not appear that Mace was acting under his auxiliary commission as a deputy sheriff or as part of a mutual-aid agreement. Therefore, for purposes of discussion on this point, the court assumes that all his interaction with defendant was done outside Mace’s territorial jurisdiction.

This issue has been decided by three Ohio Supreme Court cases and one United States Supreme Court case: Kettering v. Hollen (1980) 64 Ohio St.2d 232, 18 O.O.3d 435, 416 N.E.2d 598; State v. Weideman (2002), 94 Ohio St.3d 501, 764 N.E.2d 997; State v. Jones, 121 Ohio St.3d 103, 2009-Ohio-316, 902 [59]*59N.E.2d 464; Virginia v. Moore

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Bluebook (online)
2010 Ohio 5231, 938 N.E.2d 108, 160 Ohio Misc. 2d 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-tanner-ohmunictathens-2010.