State v. Warren

252 P.2d 781, 75 Ariz. 123, 1953 Ariz. LEXIS 184
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 31, 1953
Docket1034
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 252 P.2d 781 (State v. Warren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona 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. Warren, 252 P.2d 781, 75 Ariz. 123, 1953 Ariz. LEXIS 184 (Ark. 1953).

Opinion

PHELPS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment convicting the defendant of operating an automobile while under the influence of intoxicating liquor with prior conviction and from the order denying defendant’s motion for a mistrial or in the alternative, for a new trial, or in arrest of judgment.

The facts are that on the evening of September 20, 1951, the defendant had been celebrating a birthday and according to his testimony, had drunk four split bottles of beer (two more than is customary) at the Top Hat on the corner of Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street; that he thereafter started home and traveled along West Roosevelt Street until he reached 19th Avenue at which point he failed to make the turn south and his car ran into an irrigation ditch about 12 feet west of the west line of 19th Avenue and turned over on its side in the ditch, striking a water *125 hydrant located between 19th Avenue and the irrigation ditch. The accident occurred at approximately 12:45 a. m., to 1:00 a. m. in the morning of September 21, 1951.

A Mr. Kugel, Sun Valley patrolman, was the first person at the scene of the accident but his presence was unobtainable at the trial of the cause. The defendant was next seen by Mr. Arthur Tobiason, juvenile officer, at the intersection of West Van Burén and 19th Avenue. He was then at the middle of the intersection, staggering and placing himself in danger of oncoming traffic when Mr. Tobiason succeeded in getting him out of danger. He took him back to the scene of the accident and found Mr. Paul Blubaum, police officer of the city, at the scene. Mr. Tobiason turned the defendant over to him. Defendant was after-wards picked up by a police car operated by Melvin Weil and William R. Gragg. All of these witnesses who testified at the trial stated that the defendant was unsteady on his feet, that his tongue was thick, that his breath smelled heavily of alcohol and one witness definitely stated that he was drunk. The others testified to the same facts upon which the opinion of intoxication rests. One of the witnesses said he was unable to tell them how old he was or upon what date he was born although he was then celebrating his birthday. Exhibit B in Evidence shows the following notations made by officer Blubaum when he booked defendant at the police station: Odor of alcohol, strong; face flushed; clothes orderly; mental state, talkative; eyes bloodshot, dialated, glassy; walking, swaying; speech fair; effects of alcohol, obvious; ability to drive, greatly impaired.

Defendant was taken to the police station where he was subjected to a drunkometer test which showed a alcoholic content by weight in the blood of .23% plus.

Counsel for defendant has presented to the court a great number of assignments of error as grounds for reversing the case, many of which have no merit whatever. In short, the only assignment which appears to the court to have any merit is the alleged manner in which the drunkometer test was conducted. Testimony of the witnesses concerning the actions and conduct of the defendant is amply sufficient to have warranted the conviction of drunk driving without the aid of the drunkometer test. Counsel even contends that there is no proof that defendant drove the car. Defendant admitted to all the officers that he was driving the car and admitted on the witness stand that he drove the car from Central to 19th Avenue and that he was driving it when it ran into the irrigation ditch at Roosevelt and 19th Avenue. The admission that he was driving the car is not circumstantial evidence as claimed by counsel for defendant. It is direct and positive evidence.

One of defendant’s main objections to the drunkometer test is that the chemicals used in conducting the test were not under *126 the exclusive control of one person nor had they been so safeguarded that any particular person coúld say with certainty that their contents had not been changed after being placed there by Mr. Roy Jones, city bacteriologist and graduate chemist.

The drunkometer test used by the police department is an invention of Dr. R. N. Harger, professor of biochemistry and toxicology at the Indiana University School of Medicine and is in use in a number of states in the Union. Its use has been upheld in practically all of the. states where it is in use, if properly used. The following are some of the cases upholding its constitutionality and the conviction of the defendant based upon the test: Toms v. State, Okl.Cr. App., 239 P.2d 812; McKay v. State, Tex. Cr.App., 235 S.W.2d 173; People v. Bobczyk, 343 Ill.App. 504, 99 N.E.2d 567. Dr. Harger testified in the latter case and stated that he had conducted thousands of breath tests and had found that by means of the breath method he can accurately predict the percentage of alcohol in the blood and that all persons would be under the influence of alcohol when the alcohol blood content is above .15% by weight. In the case of Toms v. State, supra, Dr. Beddo who was qualified by counsel as a physician and chemical analyst, testified that the breathometer and urine test would show the alcohol and blood content, if any, in an individual’s blood stream. He further testified that the R. N. Harger drunkometer test had been approved by the American Medical Association, the Commissioner of National Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, by many courts, and by 12 of the states by statutes. The testimony of these experts was quoted with approval by the respective appellate courts in holding that the breath tests are admissible.

The test is made by having the subject blow up an ordinary rubber balloon. The breath impounded in the balloon is run through tubes in the drunkometer, one of which contains 10 cc of 56% sulphuric acid and another 1 cc of potassium permanganate. The record in this case does not disclose the strength of the potassium permanganate but Dr. Harger in his explanation of the alcohol drunkometer found in the American, Medical Journal, Vol. 110, p. 780, states that this solution is 20th normal potassium permanganate solution which is prepared by dissolving 1.58 grams of chemically pure potassium permanganate in enough water to make one liter. There is a tube in use in the machine which is known as the ascarite tube by which the percentage of alcohol by weight in the blood is determined. This is ascertained by computing the difference between the weight of the ascarite tube before the experiment and its weight thereafter. In this particular instance the difference between the weight as testified to by the officer conducting the test was .0134. This, when calculated according to the formula *127 explained by the witness Roy Jones, chemist, was found to be .23% !by weight, of alcohol in the blood.

With reference to the instrument used in weighing this tube the witness Roy Jones testified that it was not strictly a pair of scales but was what would be termed as balances, that the instrument therefore needed no Federal or state inspection, that it had to be balanced each time before it was used.

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

Related

People v. Conterno
339 F.2d 968 (California Court of Appeal, 1959)
State v. Childress
274 P.2d 333 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1954)
State v. Olivas
267 P.2d 893 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1954)
People v. Kovacik
205 Misc. 275 (New York Court of Special Session, 1954)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
252 P.2d 781, 75 Ariz. 123, 1953 Ariz. LEXIS 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-warren-ariz-1953.