DUI • Blood Test Results After Birchfield • Informed Consent
Commonwealth v. Stephenson, PICS Case No. 16-1232 (C.P. Centre Aug. 16, 2016) Campbell, J. (12 pages).
Driver of a vehicle that overturned in a two-car crash exhibited signs of intoxication. The responding officer placed him under arrest, drove him to the hospital, and read him the contents of the form DL 26, which he signed. The Commonwealth took that as consent under existing law, but post-Birchfield, when the case came to trial, the current evaluation of implied consent and stated penalties for refusing to submit to DUI tests indicated that blood tests were a form of search that required warrants. The submission to the test while already in custody was found a form of coercion. Defendant’s motion to suppress the test results was granted.
