Justices to Mull Good-Faith Exception in 'Birchfield' Suppression Case
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether, due to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2016 ruling in Birchfield v. North Dakota, blood alcohol test results should have been suppressed in the case of a fatal accident caused by an alleged drunken driver.
April 18, 2019 at 03:17 PM
5 minute read
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether, due to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2016 ruling in Birchfield v. North Dakota, blood alcohol test results should have been suppressed in the case of a fatal accident caused by an alleged drunken driver.
In Birchfield, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment does not permit warrantless blood tests in drunken driving arrests and outlawed criminal penalties for refusing to submit to blood draws.
In its April 10 allocatur grant for Commonwealth v. Wolfel, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to consider: “Whether the Superior Court of Pennsylvania disregarded the controlling authority of Birchfield v. North Dakota, … by reversing the trial court's decision suppressing the results of the testing of petitioner's blood.”
According to the Superior Court's December 2017 opinion, written by Senior Judge John Musmanno, Kaitlyn Wolfel was arrested in 2014 for suspicion of DUI after she ran over two pedestrians with her truck, seriously injuring one and killing the other.
At the scene, a state trooper administered a field sobriety test in which Wolfel performed poorly, according to Musmanno. She also failed a breath test. After her arrest she was transported to a local Cameron County hospital for a blood test.
There, a trooper read Wolfel implied consent warnings, contained on the Pennsylvania State Police DL-26 form, after which Wolfel consented to the test, Musmanno said. She was then charged with drunken vehicular homicide; aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI; DUI of alcohol or controlled substance; DUI of alcohol or controlled substance with a blood-alcohol content of 0.178 percent; DUI of alcohol or controlled substance; and careless driving.
Prior to trial, Wolfel sought to suppress the blood test evidence citing the Birchfield decision. The suppression court granted her motion, barring all evidence gathered from the test.
Prosecutors appealed the decision, arguing the court erred in suppressing the evidence based on Birchfield. They argued that because the case was not handed down until 2016, the warnings in the DL-26 form presented to Wolfel, which included language threatening criminal penalties for refusing a blood test, were valid at the time.
“The Birchfield court held that, although implied-consent laws that impose civil penalties and evidentiary consequences for refusing to consent are constitutional, implied-consent laws that impose criminal penalties for refusing to consent to a blood test are unconstitutional because 'motorists cannot be deemed to have consented to submit to a blood test on pain of committing a criminal offense,'” Musmanno said.
The judge continued, “Therefore, in the wake of Birchfield, the DL-26 form warnings read to Wolfel were partially incorrect, insofar as they advised her that she faced additional charges and/or enhanced penalties if she refused the blood draw. Notwithstanding the issuance of Birchfield, the commonwealth maintains that the results of Wolfel's blood test withstand suppression since the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies in this case.”
Musmanno agreed with the state's argument.
“Police officers in Pennsylvania had no reason to believe that the Supreme Court of the United States would render the statute at issue unconstitutional in Birchfield,” Musmanno said. “As such, the blood draw evidence was admissible under the good-faith exception to the Fourth Amendment, the only ground raised for suppression by Wolfel. Accordingly, we conclude that the suppression court erred by granting Wolfel's suppression Motion. We therefore reverse the suppression court's order.”
Gary Knaresboro represents Wolfel. “I'm happy the motion was granted, it's an issue that affects other cases and I really think we need a definitive answer on it.”
“This one is truly a Birchfield issue. There was no search warrant to take the blood,” he continued.
The state Office of Attorney General did not respond to a request for comment.
Wolfel is far from the first Birchfield issue the state Supreme Court has tackled.
Last July, the court granted allocatur in Commonwealth v. Hays to decide whether Birchfield should apply to all cases not yet final when the decision was rendered.
In January, the court ruled in Commonwealth v. Monarch that Birchfield invalidated an enhanced sentence handed down to an allegedly intoxicated driver who refused a blood draw.
And earlier this month, the justices heard arguments in Pittsburgh in Commonwealth v. Olson over whether Birchfield should be applied retroactively to cases pending on collateral appeal.
Read More
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllPlaintiffs Seek Redo of First Trial Over Medical Device Plant's Emissions
4 minute readRemembering Am Law 100 Firm Founder and 'Force of Nature' Stephen Cozen
5 minute readEckert Seamans Snags Reed Smith Global Financial Intelligence Director
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Call for Nominations: Elite Trial Lawyers 2025
- 2Senate Judiciary Dems Release Report on Supreme Court Ethics
- 3Senate Confirms Last 2 of Biden's California Judicial Nominees
- 4Morrison & Foerster Doles Out Year-End and Special Bonuses, Raises Base Compensation for Associates
- 5Tom Girardi to Surrender to Federal Authorities on Jan. 7
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250