Showing posts with label Indiana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indiana. Show all posts

Monday, September 12, 2011

DUI Law - Indiana Driver Fights Forced Catheterization

In Lockard v. City of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, Slip Copy, 2011 WL 3902796 (S.D.Ind.) the defendant sued the City for alleging violating his civil rights when they forced a catheterization even after the defendant had submitted to a blood draw. At approximately 10:40 p.m. on March 13, 2009, Officer Miller pulled over Mr. Lockard after observing him driving at a high rate of speed and failing to stop at two stop signs. While speaking with Mr. Lockard, Officer Miller detected an odor of alcohol and observed physiological signs of intoxication, such as bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Officer Miller began an OWI investigation, performing a series of field sobriety tests, which Mr. Lockard failed, and administering a portable breath test, which registered a reading of 0.07%. Officer Miller then asked Mr. Lockard to submit to a chemical test after advising him of Indiana's Implied Consent Law, but Mr. Lockard refused. Accordingly, Officer Miller arrested Mr. Lockard and applied for a search warrant. A search warrant was issued on March 14, 2009, at 12:10 a.m. by Magistrate Kimberly Schmaltz of the Dearborn Superior Court.

The warrant provided: “You are hereby authorized and ordered, in the name of the State of Indiana with the necessary and proper assistance to obtain and remove a blood and urine sample from Jamie N. Lockard.” (emphasis added). The warrant goes on to say that Officer Miller was “ordered to seize such sample, obtained on such search, and forward such samples for immediate analysis.” Officer Miller requested both blood and urine samples in the warrant application, in part, because he had been trained that both should be obtained.

At roughly 1:35 a.m., Officer Miller and Officer Lanning took Mr. Lockard to bed number nine in the Emergency Department; the curtains were pulled around the bed to protect Mr. Lockard's privacy; Officer Miller handcuffed Mr. Lockard to the bed; and Officer Miller and Officer Lanning grabbed Mr. Lockard's ankles in order to restrain him “so he wouldn't kick any of the nurses.” Officer Miller testified that during this time, Mr. Lockard was actively resisting the procedure. When asked if he complied with the catheterization, Mr. Lockard testified that he was “forced into complying.” Mr. Lockard told Nurse Walston that he did not want to be catheterized. Nonetheless, Nurse Walston pulled down Mr. Lockard's pants, exposing his genitalia, and prepared a sterile field by putting on sterile gloves and cleansing Mr. Lockard's penis with Betadine.


Nurse Walston subsequently prepared a straight size 16 Foley catheter for insertion by applying lubrication to the catheter. She then attempted to catheterize Mr. Lockard by beginning to insert the Foley catheter into his penis. Around this time, Mr. Lockard informed Nurse Walston that he had an enlarged prostrate. For this reason (and because she was perceiving a lack of cooperation on Mr. Lockard's part), Nurse Walston removed the Foley catheter and began preparing a Coude catheter, which is smaller and can pass through an enlarged prostrate. The procedure with the Coude catheter was completed and a urine specimen was obtained in roughly two minutes. Mr. Lockard claims that he suffered considerable pain during the procedure, describing it as “[j]ust as if somebody would take a burning hot coal and stick it up your penis” and “worse than a toochache.” Mr. Lockard was not examined following the catheterization, and he was discharged from the Dearborn County Hospital shortly after 2:00 a.m., into the custody of the Lawrenceburg police.


Mr. Lockard was taken to jail and charged with OWI, OWI Refusal, and Obstruction of Justice for refusing to consent or cooperate in the catheterization.FN5 While at jail, Mr. Lockard noticed that his urine was “cloudy.” Roughly one week after the incident, on March 20, 2009, Mr. Lockard visited Dr. Lynn Eiler for problems related to burning urination. Dr. Eiler prescribed Mr. Lockard antibiotics, which apparently cured the burning. However, Mr. Lockard's urinalysis was negative for infection. On June 15, 2009, Mr. Lockard again sought treatment for urination problems, this time with Dr. Samantha Wood. Dr. Wood referred Mr. Lockard to Mr. Michael Maggio, who, on July 6, 2009, noted that Mr. Lockard's prostate “was tender consistent with clinical prostatis.” That said, it is worth noting that Dr. Michael Koch, a physician hired by defense counsel, has reviewed the relevant evidence and opined that the catheterization at issue was “atraumatic and no urologic injury occurred to [Mr. Lockard].”


On April 3, 2009, the Indiana State Department of Toxicology received Mr. Lockard's blood and urine specimens for testing purposes. Weeks later, on April 20, 2009, Mr. Lockard entered into a plea agreement, in which he pleaded guilty to reckless driving and received a 180 day suspended sentence, 180 days of probation, a $100 .00 fine, and was assessed $165.00 in court costs. On June 23, 2009, the Department of Toxicology reported that Mr. Lockard's blood ethanol level was 54 mg/dl (or 0.05%) and his urine ethanol level was 85 mg/dl (or 0.08%). On July 6, 2009, the Department of Toxicology reported that Mr. Lockard's blood tested positive for benzodiazepines, opiates, marijuana, oxycodone, opiods, and MDMA (i.e.ecstacy). Mr. Lockard's urine tested positive for benzodiazepines, opiates, marijuana, oxycodone, and hydromorphine/hydrocodone. At his deposition, Mr. Lockard described these results as “bogus,” “trumped up,” and “fantasy land.”

Importantly, the warrant provides: “You are hereby authorized and ordered, in the name of the State of Indiana with the necessary and proper assistance to obtain and remove a blood and urine sample from Jamie N. Lockard.” (emphasis added). The warrant goes on to say that Officer Miller was “ordered to seize such sample, obtained on such search, and forward such samples for immediate analysis.” Officer Miller requested both blood and urine samples in the warrant application, in part, because he had been trained that both should be obtained.

Specifically, in November 2008, Officer Miller attended a recertification continuing education course at which Dr. Wagner, the head of the Department of Toxicology at Indiana University, told the officer that Indiana University Department of Toxicology needed samples of both urine and blood specimens when completing toxicology kits. On this point, Officer Miller testified that the Department of Toxicology does “preliminary testing on the urine to have an idea what to test for in the blood ... [t]hat way they don't use the blood sample just running queries to see what may test positive in it.” FN1 Moreover, the state kit from the Department of Toxicology contained vials for both blood and urine. Finally, Officer Miller testified that because the warrant required both blood and urine samples, he felt obligated to obtain both, stating that “[i]t's an order from the judge ... I'm complying with the judge's order.”



The District Court in considering the defendant's Motions to Dismiss discussed the law applicable:

"There are two leading Supreme Court cases addressing whether the state's intrusion into a criminal suspect's body constituted a Fourth Amendment violation. First, in Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966), the Supreme Court held that the police did not violate the Fourth/Fourteenth Amendments when, with probable cause but without a warrant, they had a physician extract blood from a person suspected of drunk driving who had declined a breathalyzer test and objected to a blood test. Id. at 772.
"Of course, not all intrusions into a suspect's body are permissible under the Fourth Amendment. This point was driven home in Winston v. Lee, 470 U.S. 753, 105 S.Ct. 1611, 84 L.Ed.2d 662 (1985), where the Supreme Court ruled that the State of Virginia could not compel a criminal suspect to undergo a surgical procedure to remove a bullet lodged in his chest, even though the bullet would have been helpful to the state in prosecuting the suspect for attempted robbery. Id. at 767. To that end, Winston emphasized that “a search for evidence of a crime may be unjustifiable if it endangers the life or health of the suspect.” Id. at 761. Moreover, Winston applied the Schmerber balancing test, which weighs the following factors: (1) the extent to which the procedure may threaten the safety or health of the individual; (2) the extent of intrusion upon the individual's dignitary interests in personal privacy and bodily integrity; and (3) the community's interest in fairly and accurately determining guilt or innocence. Id. at 761–63.FN8 One upshot of Winston is that the “reasonableness of surgical intrusions beneath the skin depends on a case-bycase approach, in which the individual's interests in privacy and security are weighed against society's interests in conducting the procedure.” Id. at 760.
"Clearly, in terms of intrusiveness, a case like Mr. Lockard's—involving forced catheterization—falls in between Schmerber and Winston. In fact, the Seventh Circuit has expressly recognized that removing urine through the placement of a catheter is not as intrusive as the removal of a bullet, but that it is worse than a blood draw. See Sparks v. Stutler, 71 F.3d 259, 261 (7th Cir.1995) (“A catheter is more intrusive than a needle but less intrusive than a scalpel, making it hard to classify the procedure under an objective reasonableness inquiry.”). Further, at the time of the incident—March 13 and14, 2009—the Seventh Circuit had addressed forced catheterizations in the context of § 1983 on two occasions."


In granting the defendant's Motions to Dismiss, the District Court found several cases holding that forced catheterizations are not an unreasonable procedure for gathering evidence (see opinion below). As such, the court found that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity and dismissed the case:
"Beginning with the first method of showing the existence of a “clearly established” right, the Court simply cannot find that, at the time of Mr. Lockard's catheterization, a closely analogous case established that any of the individual Defendants' conduct was unconstitutional. To the contrary, Seventh Circuit precedent is clear that an involuntary catheterization does not automatically violate the Fourth Amendment as a matter of law, even in the absence of a warrant. See Sparks, 71 F.3d 648. Significantly, here, the warrant required the removal of both blood and urine samples."

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

OWI Law - Indiana Say 5 Person Jury Trial OK with Defense Consent

In Bex v. State of Indiana --- N.E.2d ----, 2011 WL 3667054 (Ind.App.), the defendant proceeded to trial on an OWI. A jury of six members was seated without an alternate juror being selected. During the trial, one juror suffered a medical emergency, and the case proceeded to a verdict with the five remaining jurors. Initially, defense counsel acknowledged the defense's agreement to continuing with only five jurors, but counsel later moved for a mistrial, which the trial court denied. The five-person jury found Bex guilty, and the trial court sentenced her to 360 days in jail with 350 days suspended to probation and eighty hours of public restitution work.

On appeal, the defendant claimed that a jury trial of less than 6 was unconstitutional. The Appeal Court held that under the Sixth Amendment, a defendant may waive the statutory right to a six-person jury in cases involving a Class D felony or a misdemeanor and consent to a trial by a five-person jury; based upon a defendant's right to waive the presence of an entire jury, it would be inconsistent that a defendant could not waive the presence of one juror.


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Monday, July 25, 2011

DUI Appeal - Indiana Says Can't Plead Guilty and Claim Innocence

In Wingham v. State of Indiana, 780 N.E.2d 1164, the defendant (who had previously pled guilty to OWI) filed a post-conviction petition alleging that his plea should not have been accepted, because he maintained his innocence during the plea. The appeals court herein agreed. The Court of Appeals held that trial court did not have adequate factual basis to accept guilty plea from defendant who denied being intoxicated at time of accident. The plea colloquy was as follows:

Court: Had you been drinking alcoholic beverages before that time?

Wingham: Yes.

Court: And were you intoxicated?

Wingham: No.

Court: Do you understand that one of the elements of this crime is that you were intoxicated at the time you were driving the vehicle and if you plead guilty today, you admit that you were intoxicated?

Wingham: Yes.

Court: Did the police officer offer you a breath test?

Wingham: Yes, sir.

Court: And was the result of the breath test .08?

Wingham: Yes, sir.

In holding the plea insufficient, the court stated:

"We hold, as a matter of law, that a judge may not accept a plea of guilty when the defendant both pleads guilty and maintains his innocence at the same time. To accept such a plea constitutes reversible error."


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Friday, July 01, 2011

DUI Appeal - Passenger Busted for Public Intoxication When Car Stops


Posted by Bruce Carton on June 29, 2011 at 04:30 PM from LegalBlogWatch
Responsible Motorist Declines to Drive Drunk, Gets Charged With a Crime Anyway
Stop me when you think you've identified the crime committed by the woman in the facts below:
1. Woman drives to her sister's house.
2. Woman consumes two "tall" beers.
3. Woman's sober friend asks woman to drive him to another person's house.
4. Woman says she is too drunk to drive, but sober friend can drive them both there.
5. Woman and sober friend get in car and head off to other person's house, with woman in passenger seat.
Anybody yell out "Stop" yet? No, not yet? OK, let's add:
6. Police pull over the car driven by sober friend because the license plate light is not working, and see that the woman (who is in the passenger seat) is intoxicated.
How about now? Anyone yelling out "Stop?" Because it is at this point that the Indiana police claim that the woman, Brenda Moore, committed the crime of "public intoxication." Indiana code provides that
It is a Class B misdemeanor for a person to be in a public place or a place of public resort in a state of intoxication caused by the person's use of alcohol or a controlled substance.
The trial court and, as of Tuesday the Indiana Supreme Court, held that under Indiana law, "a vehicle stopped along a highway is in a public place for purposes of the public intoxication statute." Thus, when the police stopped the car in which Moore was a passenger, she became in violation of the statute.
Moore argued that her conviction violated the spirit of the public intoxication statute, and the policy behind it, because she caused no harm or annoyance and "adhered to the popular public service motto 'Don't drink and drive.'" She argued that public policy should "encourage persons who find themselves intoxicated to ride in a vehicle to a private place without fear of being prosecuted for a crime." She further argued that she was essentially being convicted for exercising her freedom to consume alcohol.
But the Indiana Supreme Court rejected these arguments, stating that it was up to the Legislature to determine public policy and that she was convicted not for consuming alcohol but for her "conduct after consumption" (riding as a passenger in a car stopped for a license plate infraction??)
Justice Robert Rucker, my new favorite member of the Indiana Supreme Court, dissented. Rucker wrote that as the purpose of the public intoxication statute is to protect the public from the annoyance caused by intoxicated people, "it is difficult to perceive how this purpose is advanced by declaring that the inside of a closed vehicle traveling along a highway is a public place." He added that "Moore should not suffer a criminal penalty for taking the responsible action of allowing a sober friend to drive her car while she was too intoxicated to do so. I would reverse Moore’s conviction."
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Flawed blood draw procedures in DUI cases not uncommon

Blood draw for genetic studiesImage via WikipediaEvery jurisdiction has specific procedures in place for DUI blood draws. These procedures exist for a very good reason: to prevent improper draws that could result in flawed test results and the subsequent conviction of innocent people. However, it's not uncommon for local police departments to ignore the important procedures in place and allow unlawful blood draws to occur. This recently happened in Tracy, California. As explained in this Recordnet.com article, for almost 8 months, the Tracy Police Department allowed firefighters to draw blood from suspected drunk drivers. This occurred even though California law specifically excludes firefighters from drawing blood for DUI cases since they are not certified paramedics. According to the article, this error is expected to have an impact on pending and closed DUI cases:

Gil Somera, a Stockton attorney who has defended clients charged with driving drunk, said the validity of the blood sample is vital to a DUI case.

"It is probably the most important component of the evidence," he said.

Somera said the fact that the blood was drawn by firefighters could affect closed cases.

A similar issue was encountered in Indiana last year, resulting in a change to the state's DUI laws, as described in a recent WIBC.com article:
The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled a year ago the law doesn't let a lab technician do your blood-alcohol test -- the law says "certified phlebotomist," and Indiana has no such certification. In March, legislators eliminated that language, and said anyone with the proper training, including a lab tech, can take blood -- but they still have to follow established protocols, or be under the supervision of a doctor.
However, even after the Indiana law was amended to expand the classifications of people authorized to draw blood, local police departments still allowed unqualified people to draw blood for DUI cases. As explained in the article, in one recent case, an unsupervised and unqaulified lab technician drew blood in the absence of any protocols. Accordingly, the blood test results obtained from the blood draw have been held to be inadmissible, resulting the dismissal of the DUI-related charges pending against David Bisard. The danger of DUI blood and breath testing is in the inaccuracy. There is so much room for error, whether from faulty equipment, errors in the underlying software programming, calibration errors or human error in obtaining the breath or blood sample. These cases are further examples of how error-prone these procedures can be and just go to show that what at first glance might appear to be a fool-proof case against someone accused of DUI, in many cases, is just the opposite.
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