Webb v. Director of Revenue

157 S.W.3d 769, 2005 Mo. App. LEXIS 401
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 15, 2005
DocketED 83910
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 157 S.W.3d 769 (Webb v. Director of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webb v. Director of Revenue, 157 S.W.3d 769, 2005 Mo. App. LEXIS 401 (Mo. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

BOOKER T. SHAW, Judge.

The Director of Revenue (“the Director”) appeals from the trial court’s judgment reinstating the driving privileges of respondent, Sherry D. Webb (‘Webb”). *771 The Director argues the trial court erred in reinstating Webb’s driving privileges because the Director established that Webb was arrested upon reasonable grounds to believe that she was driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated, and Webb refused to submit to a chemical test of her breath. Specifically, the Director argues that while Webb claims she received fifteen, and not twenty, minutes to attempt to contact her attorney, she never controverted the fact that she did not request an attorney before refusing to submit to a chemical test of her breath, which is necessary to trigger the twenty-minute rule under Section 577.041.1, RSMo 2000. 1 We reverse and remand for the trial court to enter judgment consistent with this opinion.

At approximately 1:55 a.m. on February 18, 2002, William Keenan, an officer of the Maryland Heights Police Department, (“Officer Keenan”) observed a purple Pontiac Sunfire traveling west on Dorsett west of McKelvey. The driver made a left turn without signaling and drove into the parking lot of a closed business. The driver pulled into a parking spot and sat for ten to fifteen seconds, backed out of the parking spot, and drove in a circle around the parking lot. Officer Keenan stopped the vehicle as it approached the north exit of the parking lot.

The driver of the Sunfire identified herself by presenting a Missouri identification card, which indicated that her name was Sherry Webb. Webb told Officer Keenan that her driver’s license was in the trunk of the vehicle. Webb almost fell down as she exited the vehicle to retrieve her driver’s license from the trunk. She swayed as she walked and steadied herself by grabbing the vehicle’s fender. She had difficulty using her key to open the trunk. When she removed her purse from the trunk, she handed the entire purse to Officer Keenan rather than removing the driver’s license and handing it to him. Officer Keenan asked Webb to remove her driver’s license from her purse. Webb then told Officer Keenan that her driver’s license was suspended. Webb admitted she had been drinking and predicted that she “would be in trouble” because of previous experiences with the police.

Officer Keenan noted Webb’s breath smelled strongly of alcohol. Her eyes were watery, bloodshot, glassy, and staring. Her pupils were dilated and reacted poorly to light. Webb swayed, wobbled, fell, and had sagging knees when walking and turning. Her speech was slurred and confused, and she mumbled. Webb performed poorly on both the walk-and-turn and one-leg stand sobriety tests. Webb displayed a lack of balance and coordination and an inability to follow instructions.

Based on Officer Keenan’s observations, Officer Keenan believed Webb was intoxicated and arrested her for driving while intoxicated. Webb was then taken to the Maryland Heights police station by Officer Keenan. The Implied Consent form completed by Officer Keenan, which was admitted into evidence at the hearing, stated that Webb received the implied consent warning, declined to attempt to contact an attorney and refused to submit to a chemical test of her breath at 2:15 a.m. Officer Keenan then set up a breath testing instrument and printed a refusal ticket at 2:30 a.m.

At the revocation hearing, Webb was asked by her attorney, “And after [Officer Keenan] advised you of the Missouri Implied Consent Law, did he give you the full 20 minutes to contact an attorney?” Webb testified “no,” and that Officer Keenan gave her only fifteen minutes in which to *772 contact her attorney. She further testified that although she was able to make contact with her previous attorney, she was not able to get in contact with her present attorney, Mr. Adler, and that she did not abandon her attempts to contact him.

The Director revoked Webb’s driving privileges for failure to submit to a chemical test of her breath. Webb sought review of this revocation, and a hearing before a commissioner was held on Webb’s petition. The commissioner filed a Notice of Findings and Recommendations of Commissioner, which the trial court endorsed when she entered a judgment for Webb finding “on 2-18-02, the arresting officer did not have probable cause to arrest [Webb] for driving while intoxicated or an alcohol related traffic offense; and [t]hat [Webb] did not refuse to submit to a chemical test of [her] breath.” The trial court ordered “[t]he administrative revocation arising out of the occurrence on 2-18-02 shall be removed from [Webb’s] driving record and [her] driving privileges be reinstated.” (emphasis in original). The Director appeals from this judgment.

The Director’s sole point on appeal asserts the trial court erred in reinstating Webb’s driving privileges because (1) the officer had probable cause to arrest Webb for driving while intoxicated; and (2) Webb refused to submit to a chemical test of her breath.

The trial court’s judgment will be affirmed unless there is no substantial evidence to support it, it is against the weight of the evidence or it erroneously declares or applies the law. Hinnah v. Director of Revenue, 77 S.W.3d 616, 620 (Mo. banc 2002). “However, in license revocation cases, a trial court is not free to disregard unequivocal and uncontradicted evidence that supports Director’s contention.” McCarthy v. Director of Revenue, 120 S.W.3d 760, 761 (Mo.App. E.D.2003). “Moreover, our standard of review does not permit us to disregard uncontroverted evidence supporting the fact that all elements of Director’s case were met.” Id.

The probable cause required for the revocation of a person’s driver’s license is the level of probable cause necessary to arrest a driver for an alcohol-related violation. Brown v. Director of Revenue, 85 S.W.3d 1, 4 (Mo. banc 2002). “That level of probable cause will exist ‘when a police officer observes an unusual or illegal operation of a motor vehicle and observes indi-cia of intoxication upon coming into contact with the motorist.’ ” Id. (citation omitted).

Here, Officer Keenan observed Webb engaging in an unusual and illegal operation of a motor vehicle when he saw her make a left turn without signaling, pull into the parking lot of a closed business, pull into a parking spot, sit in the parking spot for ten to fifteen seconds, back out of the parking spot, and drive in a circle around the parking spot. In addition, Officer Keenan observed several indicia of intoxication when he made contact with Webb. Webb admitted she had been drinking before Officer Keenan stopped her. Webb’s breath smelled of alcohol, her eyes were watery, bloodshot, glassy and staring; her pupils were dilated and reacted poorly to light. She walked in an unsteady fashion, her speech was slurred, confused and mumbling. The Director also presented evidence that Webb performed poorly on field sobriety tests. This is sufficient to warrant probable cause to arrest Webb for driving while intoxicated.

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Bluebook (online)
157 S.W.3d 769, 2005 Mo. App. LEXIS 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webb-v-director-of-revenue-moctapp-2005.