Hynes v. the State , 341 Ga. App. 500 ( 2017 )


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  •                                   FOURTH DIVISION
    DILLARD, P. J.,
    RAY and SELF, JJ.
    NOTICE: Motions for reconsideration must be
    physically received in our clerk’s office within ten
    days of the date of decision to be deemed timely filed.
    http://www.gaappeals.us/rules
    May 31, 2017
    In the Court of Appeals of Georgia
    A17A0633. HYNES v. THE STATE.
    SELF, Judge.
    James Hynes was charged with failure to maintain lane, driving under the
    influence of alcohol (DUI) less safe, and DUI per se. He filed a motion to suppress
    the results of a blood test administered pursuant to a search warrant. Following a
    hearing, the trial court denied the motion. We granted Hynes’s application for
    interlocutory appeal, and after reviewing the record and hearing transcript, we affirm
    for the reasons set forth below.
    The evidence in this case shows that on April 6, 2016, a deputy with the
    Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office observed Hynes weaving across the center line of
    Bells Ferry Road. The deputy conducted a traffic stop and smelled a “heavy odor of
    alcohol” on Hynes’s breath. During his conversation with the deputy, Hynes first
    stated he had consumed “zero” alcohol, but later admitted to drinking two glasses of
    wine. Hynes refused to participate in field sobriety testing, but eventually let the
    officer perform the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, in which Hynes exhibited all six
    indicators. The deputy placed Hynes under arrest, read the implied consent notice for
    drivers over the age of 21, and then asked Hynes if he would submit to a blood test.
    Hynes refused the state-administered test, but stated that he would “do an
    independent test.” The deputy obtained and executed a search warrant for a blood
    test. The deputy testified that he did not permit Hynes to obtain an independent test
    because “he refused implied consent.”
    The transcript of the hearing on the motion to suppress includes the following
    colloquy between the State and the deputy:
    Q: What was his answer to the implied consent card?
    A: He refused State testing.
    Q: Did he ever ask for an independent test?
    A: He never directly asked for one, no.
    Q: Okay. Did you take him to get an independent test?
    A: I did not, as he refused implied consent.
    Later, the following exchange occurred between Hynes’s attorney and the deputy:
    Q: Now, let’s talk about after you arrest him and you read him implied
    consent, he tells you in response that he’ll do an independent test, is that
    right?
    2
    A: Uh-huh. . . Yes, ma’am, he does.
    Q: And do you recall hearing him on the video say, you asked him to confirm,
    you will do an independent test? Do you remember asking him that?
    A: Yes, I believe that’s on the video.
    Q: And he responded, yes. Is that right?
    A: He said he would do an independent test, yes, ma’am.
    Q: Okay. At any point thereafter was a test administered in this case?
    A: A test was administered after a search warrant was completed.
    Q: Okay. And what kind of test was that?
    A: It was a blood test.
    Q: All right. And after the blood test was administered, was there any effort
    made to accommodate an independent test?
    A: No, ma’am, because he refused implied consent.
    Hynes moved to suppress the results of the blood test because the deputy
    refused to honor his request for an independent test. Hynes argued that his right to an
    independent test under OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3) is not contingent upon his
    submission to a state-administered test. The trial court denied the motion, ruling that
    a “[d]efendant’s right to an independent test accrues only upon the [d]efendant’s
    consent to the State’s test as requested after the reading of the [i]mplied [c]onsent
    card.”
    In his sole enumeration of error, Hynes contends that the trial court erred in
    ruling that OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3) does not grant a driver the right to an
    independent test when the officer obtains a search warrant for a blood test. Hynes
    3
    argues that the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress the results of
    the blood test performed pursuant to a search warrant because OCGA § 40-6-392 (a)
    (3) merely requires that a test be administered at the direction of a law enforcement
    officer before the right to an independent test accrues and does not make an exception
    for chemical tests administered pursuant to search warrants. In other words, according
    to Hynes, he was entitled to an independent test because under the plain language of
    OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3), a chemical test performed pursuant to a search warrant
    comes within the definition of “any administered at the direction of a law
    enforcement officer.”
    The State argues that OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3) does not create the right to an
    independent test for defendants whose blood is drawn pursuant to a search warrant.
    The State points out that OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) does not apply in its entirety to cases
    where a chemical test was conducted pursuant to a search warrant. The State also
    contends that OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3) must be read in concert with subsection (a)
    (4) (requiring an implied consent warning to be read) and OCGA § 40-5-67.1
    (containing the language of the warning), which make clear that an independent test
    is triggered only after a defendant consents to take a test pursuant to the implied
    consent statute.
    4
    The question of whether a DUI suspect has the right to an independent test
    when that suspect refuses a test under the implied consent law, but is then tested
    pursuant to a search warrant, appears to be one of first impression in Georgia.1 We
    conduct a de novo review of the trial court’s negative answer to this question. Jones
    v. State, 
    291 Ga. 35
    , 36-37 (1) (727 SE2d 456) (2012) (“When the evidence at a
    suppression hearing is uncontroverted and the credibility of witnesses is not in
    question, we conduct a de novo review of the trial court’s application of the law to
    the undisputed facts.”). We begin our analysis by delineating a few basic principles
    related to implied consent and the rules of statutory construction.
    1
    While our appellate courts have never addressed this exact issue, we have
    held that “[t]he statutory right to an alternate test by a person of the defendant’s own
    choosing does not attach until the State has performed its test.” Modlin v. State, 
    176 Ga. App. 83
     (335 SE2d 312) (1985), citing Huff v. State, 
    144 Ga. App. 764
     (242 SE2d
    361) (1978).
    5
    Implied Consent
    In Williams v. State, 
    296 Ga. 817
     (771 SE2d 373) (2015), the Georgia Supreme
    Court explained that
    [a DUI] suspect’s right under the Fourth Amendment to be free of
    unreasonable searches and seizures applies to the compelled withdrawal
    of blood, and the extraction of blood is a search within the meaning of
    the Georgia Constitution. In general, searches are of two types: those
    conducted with a search warrant or those undertaken without one, and
    searches conducted outside the judicial process are per se unreasonable
    under the Fourth Amendment, subject only to a few specifically
    established and well-delineated exceptions.
    (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Id. at 819. The United States Supreme Court in
    Schmerber v. California, 
    384 U. S. 757
     (86 SCt 1826, 16 LEd2d 908) (1966),
    recognized the presence of “exigent circumstances” as the first exception to the
    warrant requirement in the context of a blood test taken by a physician while
    defendant was in the hospital after being arrested, ruling that a warrantless blood
    draw may be appropriate where the officer was confronted with an emergency which
    threatened “‘the destruction of evidence.’” 
    Id. at 770-771
     (IV). See also Missouri v.
    McNeely, __ U. S. __ (133 SCt 1552, 185 LE2d 696) (2013) (rejecting per se rule of
    admissibility of warrantless blood draws based upon exigent circumstances). Another
    6
    exception to the warrant requirement is a search pursuant to consent. See Cooper v.
    State, 
    277 Ga. 282
    , 291 (VI) (587 SE2d 605) (2003). Georgia’s implied consent law
    is based on this exception. See 
    id.
    In codifying Georgia’s implied consent law, our General Assembly declared
    as a matter of law that persons in control of any moving vehicle while having an
    illegal blood alcohol concentration “constitute[] a direct and immediate threat to the
    welfare and safety of the general public.” OCGA § 40-5-55. Accordingly,
    any person who operates a motor vehicle upon the highways or
    elsewhere throughout this state shall be deemed to have given consent,
    subject to Code Section 40-6-392, to a chemical test or tests of his or her
    blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substances for the purpose of
    determining the presence of alcohol or any other drug, if arrested for any
    offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed in violation
    of Code Section 40-6-391 or if such person is involved in any traffic
    accident resulting in serious injuries or fatalities. The test or tests shall
    be administered at the request of a law enforcement officer having
    reasonable grounds to believe that the person has been driving or was in
    actual physical control of a moving motor vehicle upon the highways or
    elsewhere throughout this state in violation of Code Section 40-6-391.
    The test or tests shall be administered as soon as possible to any person
    who operates a motor vehicle upon the highways or elsewhere
    throughout this state who is involved in any traffic accident resulting in
    serious injuries or fatalities. Subject to Code Section 40-6-392, the
    7
    requesting law enforcement officer shall designate which of the test or
    tests shall be administered, provided a blood test with drug screen may
    be administered to any person operating a motor vehicle involved in a
    traffic accident resulting in serious injuries or fatalities.
    Id. This Code section is part of the implied consent statutory scheme which also
    includes OCGA §§ 40-5-67.1 and 40-6-392. See Massey v. State, 
    331 Ga. App. 430
    ,
    431-434 (771 SE2d 122) (2015).
    OCGA § 40-5-67.1 provides the specific implied consent notice to be given by
    the officer to the driver, including “information regarding consequences for refusing
    the testing requested by the officer, and the driver’s right to obtain additional
    chemical testing after submitting to the testing requested by the officer.” Massey,
    supra at 430-433 (1). And OCGA § 40-6-392 governs the admissibility of chemical
    tests in cases alleging the violation of OCGA § 40-6-391, including regulating the
    procedures and methodology of chemical analysis,2 and provides in relevant part:
    2
    See Perano v. State, 
    250 Ga. 704
    , 707 (2) (300 SE2d 668) (1983) (“[C]ode
    section [OCGA § 40-6-392] provides for the procedures to be used where the [S]tate
    administers the [alcohol concentration] test.”). A State-administered test that complies
    with the procedures outlined in the Code section is admissible; conversely, a State-
    administered test that does not comply with the statute is inadmissible. See State v.
    Padgett, 
    329 Ga. App. 747
    , 750 (1) (766 SE2d 143) (2014).
    8
    (a) Upon the trial of any civil or criminal action or proceeding arising
    out of acts alleged to have been committed by any person in violation of
    Code Section 40-6-391, evidence of the amount of alcohol or drug in a
    person’s blood, urine, breath, or other bodily substance at the alleged
    time, as determined by a chemical analysis of the person’s blood, urine,
    breath, or other bodily substance shall be admissible. Where such a
    chemical test is made, the following provisions shall apply:
    (1) (A) Chemical analysis of the person’s blood, urine, breath, or other
    bodily substance, to be considered valid under this Code section, shall
    have been performed according to methods approved by the Division of
    Forensic Sciences of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on a machine
    which was operated with all its electronic and operating components
    prescribed by its manufacturer properly attached and in good working
    order and by an individual possessing a valid permit issued by the
    Division of Forensic Sciences for this purpose. The Division of Forensic
    Sciences of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation shall approve
    satisfactory techniques or methods to ascertain the qualifications and
    competence of individuals to conduct analyses and to issue permits,
    along with requirements for properly operating and maintaining any
    testing instruments, and to issue certificates certifying that instruments
    have met those requirements, which certificates and permits shall be
    subject to termination or revocation at the discretion of the Division of
    Forensic Sciences. . . .
    (2) When a person shall undergo a chemical test at the request of a law
    enforcement officer, only a physician, registered nurse, laboratory
    9
    technician, emergency medical technician, or other qualified person may
    withdraw blood for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content
    therein, provided that this limitation shall not apply to the taking of
    breath or urine specimens. No physician, registered nurse, or other
    qualified person or employer thereof shall incur any civil or criminal
    liability as a result of the medically proper obtaining of such blood
    specimens when requested in writing by a law enforcement officer;
    (3) The person tested may have a physician or a qualified technician,
    chemist, registered nurse, or other qualified person of his own choosing
    administer a chemical test or tests in addition to any administered at the
    direction of a law enforcement officer. The justifiable failure or inability
    to obtain an additional test shall not preclude the admission of evidence
    relating to the test or tests taken at the direction of a law enforcement
    officer; and
    (4) Upon the request of the person who shall submit to a chemical test
    or tests at the request of a law enforcement officer, full information
    concerning the test or tests shall be made available to him or his
    attorney. The arresting officer at the time of arrest shall advise the
    person arrested of his rights to a chemical test or tests according to this
    Code section. . . .
    OCGA § 40-6-392 (a). As the United States Supreme Court noted in Birchfield v.
    North Dakota, 579 U. S. __ (136 SCt 2160, 195 LEd2d 560) (2016):
    10
    Drunk drivers take a grisly toll on the Nation’s roads, claiming
    thousands of lives, injuring many more victims, and inflicting billions
    of dollars in property damage every year. To fight this problem, all
    States have laws that prohibit motorists from driving with a blood
    alcohol concentration (BAC) that exceeds a specified level. But
    determining whether a driver’s BAC is over the legal limit requires a
    test, and many drivers stopped on suspicion of drunk driving would not
    submit to testing if given the option. So every State also has long had
    what are termed “implied consent laws.” These laws impose penalties
    on motorists who refuse to undergo testing when there is sufficient
    reason to believe they are violating the State’s drunk-driving laws.
    136 SCt at 2166.
    Like many other states, Georgia relies upon incentives and penalties in the
    implied consent law to encourage DUI suspects to submit to State-administered
    testing. In State v. Simmons, 
    270 Ga. App. 301
     (605 SE2d 846) (2004) (physical
    precedent only), we noted that Georgia’s implied consent law offers two choices to
    DUI suspects: “(1) submit to State-administered chemical testing with right to
    independent testing, if desired, or (2) refuse State testing, suffering the attendant
    evidentiary consequences.”3 Id. at 303. See also Padidham v. State, 
    291 Ga. 99
     (728
    3
    United States Supreme Court opinions “have referred approvingly to the
    general concept of implied-consent laws that impose civil penalties and evidentiary
    consequences on motorists who refuse to comply.” Birchfield, supra, 136 SCt at 2185
    11
    SE2d 175) (2012). In Padidham, our Supreme Court recognized that the obligation
    placed on the officer by the implied consent statute is intended to protect the DUI
    suspect: “[O]ne cannot make an intelligent choice to submit to a chemical test without
    the knowledge of the right to have an independent test.” (Citation and punctuation
    omitted.) Id. at 101 (2).
    [T]he choice to submit or refuse to submit to the analysis of one’s blood,
    breath, urine or other bodily substance will not be an easy or pleasant
    one to make, “but the criminal process often requires suspects and
    defendants to make difficult choices.” DUI defendants similarly must
    determine, often under difficult and stressful circumstances, whether to
    request an independent test.4
    Id. at 102-103 (2), citing South Dakota v. Neville, 
    459 U. S. 553
    , 560 (II) (103 SCt
    916, 74 LEd2d 748) (1983).
    In Neville, the United States Supreme Court held that “the admission into
    evidence of a defendant’s refusal to submit to [a blood-alcohol test] does not offend
    (VI), citing McNeely, supra, 133 SCt 1552; South Dakota v. Neville, 
    459 U. S. 553
    ,
    560 (II) (103 SCt 916, 74 LEd2d 748) (1983).
    4
    “An officer is permitted to attempt to persuade an individual to submit to a
    field-sobriety test, so long as in doing so the officer makes no threat of criminal
    sanction or any show of force that would improperly compel a suspect into submitting
    to the tests.” (Citation omitted and punctuation omitted.) State v. Mosley, 
    321 Ga. App. 236
    , 237, n. 4 (739 SE2d 106) (2013).
    12
    the right against self-incrimination.” Neville, 
    supra,
     
    459 U. S. at 554
    . The Court
    reasoned that a DUI suspect’s right to refuse chemical testing was not a right of
    “constitutional dimension,” but “simply a matter of grace bestowed by the South
    Dakota legislature.” 
    Id. at 565
     (III).5 The defendant in Neville argued that admission
    into evidence of his refusal to take a blood-alcohol test violated the Due Process
    Clause in much the same way that the Due Process Clause forbids the state from
    using the defendant’s silence after a Miranda warning against him at trial. 
    Id. at 564
    (III). The Court rejected this argument finding that
    the Miranda warnings emphasize the dangers of choosing to speak
    (“whatever you say can and will be used as evidence against you in
    court”), but give no warning of adverse consequences from choosing to
    remain silent. This imbalance in the delivery of Miranda warnings,
    [however], implicitly assures the suspect that his silence will not be used
    against him. The warnings challenged here, by contrast, contained no
    such misleading implicit assurances as to the relative consequences of
    his choice. The officers explained that, if respondent chose to submit to
    the test, he had the right to know the results and could choose to take an
    additional test by a person chosen by him.
    5
    In Padidham, supra, the Georgia Supreme Court adopted the United States
    Supreme Court’s language from Neville in relation to OCGA § 40-6-392: “a
    defendant’s right to an independent test, a right created by § 40-6-392 (a) (3), is not
    one of constitutional dimension but a ‘matter of grace’ bestowed by the Georgia
    legislature.” 291 Ga. at 101 (2).
    13
    Id. at 565 (III). The Court also pointed out that the warning that the State could
    revoke the DUI suspect’s license for one year “made it clear that refusing the test was
    not a ‘safe harbor,’ free of adverse consequences.” Id. at 566 (III). The caselaw
    interpreting implied consent laws demonstrates that the judiciary overwhelmingly
    sanctions the use of civil penalties and evidentiary consequences against DUI
    suspects who refuse to comply.
    Statutory Construction
    Our consideration of Hynes’s enumeration of error requires application of the
    elementary rules of statutory construction.
    [I]n considering the meaning of a statute, our charge as an appellate
    court is to presume that the General Assembly meant what it said and
    said what it meant. Thus, we must afford the statutory text its plain and
    ordinary meaning, consider the text contextually, read the text in its
    most natural and reasonable way, as an ordinary speaker of the English
    language would, and seek to avoid a construction that makes some
    language mere surplusage. Importantly, when the language of a statute
    is plain and susceptible of only one natural and reasonable construction,
    courts must construe the statute accordingly.
    (Citations, punctuation and footnotes omitted.) Wright v. Brown, 
    336 Ga. App. 1
    , 3
    (2) (783 SE2d 405) (2016). See also Deal v. Coleman, 
    294 Ga. 170
    , 171 (1) (a) (751
    14
    SE2d 337) (2013). Additionally, when a statute is part of a statutory scheme, as in this
    case, it must be analyzed in relation to other statutes of which it is a part. As our
    Supreme Court has explained,
    in our search for the meaning of a particular statutory provision, we look
    not only to the words of that provision, but we consider its legal context
    as well. After all, context is a primary determinant of meaning. For
    context, we may look to the other provisions of the same statute, the
    structure and history of the whole statute, and the other law –
    constitutional, statutory, and common law alike – that forms the legal
    background of the statutory provision in question. This is what we mean
    when we speak of discerning “the intent of the legislature,” as that
    “intent” is reflected in the relevant statutory text and its contextual
    backdrop.
    (Citations, punctuation and footnotes omitted.) Algren v. State, 
    330 Ga. App. 1
    , 7 (3)
    (764 SE2d 611) (2014).
    Analysis
    Bearing in mind the principles of implied consent and statutory construction,
    we now consider the question of whether a DUI suspect has the right to an
    independent test when that suspect refuses testing under the implied consent law but
    is then tested pursuant to a search warrant. As noted previously, Hynes contends that
    15
    he was entitled to an independent test because under the plain language of OCGA §
    40-6-392 (a) (3), a chemical test performed pursuant to a search warrant comes within
    the definition of “any administered at the direction of a law enforcement officer.” We
    are not persuaded by this contention.
    The caselaw discussed above demonstrates that under implied consent law, a
    DUI suspect has the option of accepting or refusing the state-administered test, after
    being advised of the attendant consequences for both choices. The law provides for
    penalties, including license revocation and admission into evidence the refusal to
    submit to state-administered testing, but also offers a DUI suspect an incentive
    “carrot” of additional testing after accepting the required state-administered chemical
    testing. In Neville, supra, the United States Supreme Court implicitly approved the
    use of such an incentive, which we interpret conversely: If a DUI suspect chooses not
    to take the state-administered test, he or she is not entitled to take advantage of the
    “additional test” incentive. As we noted above, the choice to submit or refuse testing
    is not an easy or pleasant one to make, but the criminal process often requires
    suspects and defendants to make hard choices, some of which will result in adverse
    consequences, some of which will result in favorable consequences. Contrary to
    Hynes’s contention, Georgia’s implied consent warning has everything to do with
    16
    whether he was entitled to an independent blood test; if he chose to submit to state-
    administered testing as provided by the implied consent notice, he would be entitled
    to take advantage of the incentive offered. He refused to submit to the required State-
    administered test and must, therefore, suffer the adverse consequences of that choice.
    This result is consistent with our existing law that defendants forfeit their “right to
    such independent testing by refusing the arresting officer’s request to submit to a
    state-administered breath test after being advised under OCGA § 40-5-67.1.” Clegg
    v. State, 
    236 Ga. App. 115
     (511 SE2d 544) (1999).
    Reading the statute in the manner suggested by Hynes would vitiate the nature
    of independent testing as an incentive for accepting state-administered testing under
    implied consent, and effectively frustrate the intended effect of Georgia’s implied
    consent law. When OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3) is read in the context of the entire
    statutory scheme for implied consent, it is clear that “the person tested” in subsection
    (a) (3) refers to a person tested pursuant to implied consent. Construing it any other
    way would render meaningless the language in the implied consent notice.6 OCGA
    § 40-5-67.1 (b) (3) (“After first submitting to the required [S]tate tests, you are
    6
    In light of this construction, we need not consider Hynes’s contention
    regarding the legislature’s use of the words “undergo” and “submit” in other
    subsections of OCGA § 40-6-392 (a).
    17
    entitled to additional chemical tests of your blood, breath, urine, or other bodily
    substances at your own expense.”).
    If the General Assembly had intended OCGA § 40-6-392 to grant a DUI
    suspect the right to an independent test after an officer obtains a search warrant for
    a chemical test, it could have expressly provided that right. Instead, in the statutory
    text, our General Assembly used an independent test as an incentive for a DUI
    suspect to submit to the required State test under implied consent. The crux of
    Hynes’s argument in this case is that he was entitled to an independent test under the
    statute upon demand. But, the Georgia Supreme Court in Padidham, 
    supra,
     made
    clear that the right to an independent test is not an entitlement, but rather, “a matter
    of grace bestowed by the Georgia legislature” upon one who submits to the required
    state-administered test under implied consent. 291 Ga. at 101 (2).
    Hynes’s claim fails for another reason as well. As noted above, OCGA § 40-6-
    392 (a) (3) provides, in pertinent part, that “[t]he person tested may have a physician
    or a qualified technician, chemist, registered nurse, or other qualified person of his
    own choosing administer a chemical test or tests in addition to any administered at
    the direction of a law enforcement officer.” (Emphasis supplied.) Here, Hynes’s blood
    was drawn pursuant to a search warrant. A search warrant is issued at the command
    18
    or direction of a judicial officer, not at the direction of a law enforcement officer. See
    OCGA § 17-5-20 et seq. See also Hawkins v. State, 
    130 Ga. App. 426
    , 427 (2) (203
    SE2d 622) (1973) (reversing denial of motion to suppress where magistrate judge,
    who was also county law enforcement officer, issued search warrant; under doctrine
    of separation of powers, person seeking search warrant, an executive officer, and
    person issuing search warrant, a judicial officer, cannot be one in the same). When
    presented with a proper affidavit, it is ultimately up to a judicial officer to determine
    whether probable cause exists to issue a search warrant:
    Upon the written complaint of any certified peace officer of this state or
    its political subdivisions charged with the duty of enforcing the criminal
    laws and otherwise as authorized in Code Section 17-5-20 under oath or
    affirmation, which states facts sufficient to show probable cause that a
    crime is being committed or has been committed and which particularly
    describes the place or person, or both, to be searched and things to be
    seized, any judicial officer authorized to hold a court of inquiry to
    examine into an arrest of an offender against the penal laws, referred to
    in this Code section as “judicial officer,” may issue a search warrant. .
    . . OCGA § 17-5-21 (a).
    Construing the plain language of OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3), it is apparent that
    it applies only to tests administered at the direction of a law enforcement officer, not
    tests administered pursuant to a search warrant, which by definition are issued at the
    19
    direction of a judicial officer. So, while subsection 40-6-392 (a) (1) (A) applies to
    chemical tests performed pursuant to search warrants, subsection (a) (3) does not. To
    hold that the statute, in its silence, applies to tests administered at the direction of a
    judicial officer would require us to add words not found in the statute. This, we will
    not do. Reading the statute in this manner is also consistent with our conclusion that
    an independent test is an incentive for accepting testing under implied consent.
    Hynes points out that “there is something perverse about allowing officers to
    use a search warrant to avoid providing an independent test even if a motorist may
    have submitted.” We are not persuaded by this argument. Because the effort of
    obtaining a search warrant is time-consuming and the requirements strict and
    exacting,7 we do not accept Hynes’s argument that law enforcement officers will
    abuse that power in an effort to trick DUI suspects into forfeiting their right to an
    independent test. Indeed, the facts of this case demonstrate that officers will first seek
    to use the implied-consent procedure.
    Hynes further contends that denying an independent test to a DUI suspect who
    is tested pursuant to a search warrant creates an absurd result whereby only those who
    7
    See generally King v. State, 
    276 Ga. 126
    , 128 (2) (577 SE2d 764) (2003),
    (discussing requirements for issuance of search warrants).
    20
    waive their Fourth Amendment rights would be entitled to have their blood drawn by
    qualified medical personnel. The facts of this case, however, do not require us to
    address this scenario. But see Jackson v. State, 
    340 Ga. App. 228
     (2) (797 SE2d 152)
    (2017) (under implied consent, there is no requirement that a chemical analysis of
    blood to detect the presence of drugs be performed by “qualified medical personnel”).
    In sum, because Hynes refused to submit to the chemical testing requested by
    the arresting officer pursuant to OCGA § 40-5-55, he was not entitled to an
    independent test, and the trial court properly denied his motion to suppress the results
    of the blood test performed pursuant to a search warrant.8
    Judgment affirmed. Dillard, P. J., and Ray, J., concur.
    8
    We render no opinion as to whether Hynes may be entitled to subpoena the
    sample of his blood for independent testing. See generally Townsend v. State, 
    236 Ga. App. 530
     (511 SE2d 587) (1999) (noting with approval trial court’s decision to allow
    defense expert to independently test sole blood sample).
    21
    

Document Info

Docket Number: A17A0633

Citation Numbers: 341 Ga. App. 500, 801 S.E.2d 306, 2017 WL 2361134, 2017 Ga. App. LEXIS 229

Judges: Self, Dillard, Ray

Filed Date: 5/31/2017

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 11/8/2024