The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a decision that suppressed breath-test results in a drunken driving case because the test was administered outside the city of Maitland, where the motorist was stopped.
The case involved Bryan Repple, who was arrested by a Maitland police officer for driving under the influence. The officer drove Repple to a breath-test facility outside Maitland in Orange County. The test showed an illegal blood-alcohol level, according to Tuesday’s opinion. The 6th District Court of Appeal agreed with Repple’s arguments that the breath-test results should be suppressed because the officer operated outside of his jurisdiction.
But in Tuesday’s main opinion overturning the appeals-court decision, Justice Charles Canady cited what is known as an “implied consent law.” Canady wrote that the law “authorizes the administration of a breath-alcohol test incident to an arrest for driving under the influence.” The main opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice Carlos Muniz and Justices Jorge Labarga, John Couriel and Renatha Francis, said the implied consent law “clearly contemplates that an officer making a DUI arrest will complete his responsibilities under the statute by requesting the arrestee to submit to a breath test.
The state here correctly argued that the officer had authority under that law to request the test outside his jurisdiction.” Justice Jamie Grosshans wrote a concurring opinion, while Justice Meredith Sasso dissented. Sasso wrote that the implied consent law, “rather than granting officers powers or duties from which extraterritorial authority can be implied, should be read more as a limitation on government power — prescribing limited and specific procedures through which a citizen can be both deprived of liberty and subjected to a search.”
–News Service of Florida
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