{¶ 1} The Fifth District Court of Appeals has certified this case pursuant to Section 3(B)(4), Article IV, Ohio Constitution and App.R. 25. It found its judgment to be in conflict with the judgments of the Seventh District Court of Appeals in State v. Lake,
{¶ 2} On September 11, 2002, an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper stopped a vehicle driven by appellant, Rebekah Edwards. During the stop, he detected an odor of alcohol coming from Edwards. After conducting field sobriety tests and observing her physical condition, the trooper arrested her. Testing with a BAC DataMaster determined the concentration of alcohol in Edwards’s breath to be .134 grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath. The trooper charged Edwards with driving under the influence of alcohol (“DUI”) in violation of former R.C. 4511.19(A)(1) and (3), now (A)(1)(a) and (d).
{¶ 4} At a hearing on Edwards’s motion in the New Philadelphia Municipal Court, the trooper identified a document as a photocopy of a certificate
{¶ 5} Edwards asserted that the photocopied test-solution certificate was not authenticated, and she objected to the magistrate’s consideration of it. In response, the prosecutor volunteered to retrieve the original certificate from the local patrol post.
{¶ 6} The prosecutor returned with a document he described as the original test-solution certificate, but it too was a photocopy, revealing the images of a handwritten May 28, 2002 date and the apparent signature of the Director of Health. It did not bear the original seal of the Department of Health or a statement certifying the director’s signature as genuine, cf. Evid.R. 902(1)
{¶ 7} The magistrate concluded that he could consider the photocopied test-solution certificate. Citing Evid.R. 901,
{¶ 8} On review of objections to the magistrate’s decision, the municipal court initially ruled that the test-solution certificate was admissible under the Rules of Evidence. On reconsideration, the court reversed its prior ruling to the extent that it had earlier implied that the test-solution certificate would be admissible at trial. The court characterized that issue as premature. The court did not, however, reverse the magistrate’s decision denying suppression of the breath-test results. Nor did the court criticize the magistrate’s consideration of the test-solution certifícate at the suppression hearing.
{¶ 9} Edwards pleaded no contest and was convicted. On appeal, she contended that “[t]he breath test should have been suppressed at the suppression hearing due to the calibration solution affidavit not being properly certified.” In a split decision, the court of appeals affirmed Edwards’s conviction.
{¶ 10} DUI offenses are prosecuted within a statutory and regulatory framework. R.C. 4511.19(D)(1) provides that in any criminal DUI prosecution or juvenile court DUI proceeding a court “may admit evidence on the concentration of alcohol * * * in the defendant’s * * * breath * * * at the time of the alleged violation as shown by chemical analysis of the substance.” The statute, however, further provides: “The bodily substance withdrawn shall be analyzed in accordance with methods approved by the director of health * * *.” Both the First and Ninth District Courts of Appeals have characterized R.C. 4511.19 as a legislatively created exclusionary rule analogous to the exclusionary rule estab
{¶ 11} Crim.R. 12(C)(3) and Traf.R. 11(B)(2) provide that “[m]otions to suppress evidence * * * on the ground that it was illegally obtained” must be raised before trial. We have expressly held that Crim.R. 12(C)(3) (then (B)(3)) requires a pretrial suppression hearing in a DUI prosecution to determine the admissibility of alcohol-content test results claimed to have been illegally obtained based on noncompliance with the director’s rules governing the maintenance and operation of testing devices. State v. French (1995),
{¶ 12} In summary, a challenge asserting that test results were not obtained in compliance with the director’s rules must be raised by a defendant prior to trial by way of a pretrial motion to suppress. French,
{¶ 13} We today expressly reaffirm that an assertion that test results are inadmissible in a criminal trial because the state failed to substantially comply with methods approved by the Director of Health for determining the concentration of alcohol in bodily fluids must be raised through a pretrial motion to suppress.
{¶ 14} In this court, Edwards has addressed at length the issue whether the photocopied test-solution certificate considered by the magistrate was authenticated in compliance with Evid.R. 901 and 902. We need not resolve this issue,
{¶ 15} Therefore, the magistrate was not precluded from considering the test-solution certificate in photocopy form at the suppression hearing to determine whether the state’s chemical results complied with the director’s regulations even if the Rules of Evidence governing authentication and hearsay would preclude admission of the certificate at trial.
{¶ 16} The municipal court had viewed the magistrate’s recommendation for denying the suppression as a ruling on a motion in limine. Motions in limine may be made prior to the trial of a DUI charge when a defendant asserts a challenge under the Rules of Evidence to evidence that he or she expects the state to introduce at trial. In most cases, either a defendant or a prosecutor may, prior to trial, seek a ruling in limine on evidentiary issues. A court may consider those issues as well as challenges to the state’s compliance with the director’s rules at a single pretrial hearing. Our decisions in Kretz and French do not, however, require that all issues concerning the admissibility of alcohol-content evidence be determined only at a pretrial suppression hearing or that a defendant be precluded from raising for the first time at trial purely evidentiary issues concerning the documentation of test results. The issue in French was “whether a challenge to the results of a breath alcohol test on the basis of failure to comply with regulations of the Ohio Department of Health” may be raised by a criminal defendant at trial in the absence of a pretrial motion to suppress the test result upon that ground. (Emphasis added.) French,
{¶ 17} A ruling on a motion in limine raising a challenge based on the Rules of Evidence differs from a ruling on a motion to suppress based on alleged failure to comply with the director’s rules. Where a court, in its discretion, chooses to rule
{¶ 18} In this case, Edwards argued in a written memorandum filed after the suppression hearing but prior to the magistrate’s decision that “admission of the improperly authenticated solution affidavit is allowing in hearsay which violates the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause” because the state had not produced certificates at the suppression hearing that were properly authenticated under Evid.R. 902(4). But in support of that position, Edwards focused on the technical requirements of the Rules of Evidence — not due process considerations. The Rules of Evidence, however, are not coextensive with constitutional requirements. Nor did Edwards argue that the test-solution certificate constitutes a testimonial statement as described in Crawford v. Washington (2004),
{¶ 19} Had the state introduced the certificate over Edwards’s evidentiary objections at trial, its introduction would have been governed by the Rules of Evidence. We observed in French that a defendant retained the right to make an evidentiary challenge at trial as opposed to a substantive challenge to the state’s compliance with the director’s rules: “Evidentiary objections challenging the competency, admissibility, relevancy, authenticity, and credibility of the chemical test results may still be raised” at trial. Id.,
{¶ 20} At the trial regarding an alleged violation of R.C. 4511.19 based on a prohibited breath-alcohol level, the state must introduce evidence of the “concentration of alcohol * * * in the defendant’s * * * breath * * * at the time of the
(¶ 21} We reaffirm that a failure to comply with the director’s approved methods must be raised in a pretrial motion to suppress and that judicial officials at suppression hearings may rely on hearsay and other evidence to determine whether alcohol test results were obtained in compliance with methods approved by the Director of Health. The judgment of the court of appeals affirming the conviction is therefore affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
. {¶ a} The certificate, sometimes called a “batch and bottle” certificate, states as follows: “BATCH OR LOT No. 02010. This instrument check solution is to be used in a simulator for the instrument cheek of approved breath testing instruments as defined in OAC 3701-53-02. This instrument check solution contains 1.213 mg/ml ethyl alcohol in distilled water. When used according to instrument check forms, it will produce a reading of 0.100 g/210L ± .005 in the approved breath testing instrument, when that instrument is in proper working condition. This solution shall not be used more than three months after its date of first use or more than one year after its date of manufacture, February 7, 2002.”
{¶ b} The magistrate, the court of appeals, and both parties have all referred to the certificate as an affidavit. The certificate, however, is not a sworn document, nor is it notarized, and we therefore have not referred to it as an affidavit.
. Although standard solutions of alcohol used to test the accuracy of breath-testing devices are commonly called calibration solutions, the operator does not recalibrate the device if a test shows it to be inaccurate. Instead, the device is simply not used until it is serviced. Ohio Adm.Code 3701-53-04(A)(2). The Administrative Code refers to the test solution as an “instrument check solution.”
. Evid.R. 902(1) provides that a public document bearing the seal of an agency of a state is self-authenticating.
. Evid.R. 902(2) provides that a public document bearing an official signature but not an official seal is self-authenticating if an appropriate public officer “certifies under seal that the signer has the official capacity and that the signature is genuine.”
. Evid.R. 902(4) provides that a copy of an official record is self-authenticating if it bears a certification by an authorized custodian of the record that the copy is a correct copy.
. Evid.R. 901(A) provides: “The requirement of authentication or identification as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.”
. Evid.R. 1003 provides: “A duplicate is admissible to the same extent as an original unless (1) a genuine question is raised as to the authenticity of the original or (2) in the circumstances it would be unfair to admit the duplicate in lieu of the original.”
. {¶ a} Evid.R. 101(C)(1) provides:
{¶ b} “These rules (other than with respect to privileges) do not apply in the following situations:
{V c} “(1) Admissibility determinations. Determinations prerequisite to rulings on the admissibility of evidence when the issue is to be determined by the court under Evid. R. 104.”
{¶ d} Evid.R. 104(A) provides: “Preliminary questions concerning * * * the admissibility of evidence shall be determined by the court * * *. In making its determination it is not bound by the rules of evidence except those with respect to privileges.”