State v. SullivanState v. Sullivan
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- Before:
- Brock
The defendant, Brian Sullivan, was charged with negligent homicide and five counts of second degree assault arising out of an automobile accident. The State brings this interlocutory
The charges against the defendant stem from an automobile accident on April 28,1997, in which one person was killed and others were seriously injured. After speaking with and observing the defendant at the scene of the accident, a New Hampshire State Police officer arrested him for “felony driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor” and placed him in the rear of his cruiser. The officer then read the defendant his rights from the Administrative License Suspension Form (ALS form). Although the defendant did not initial or sign the form, he acknowledged that these rights were read to him. The ALS form stated, in part:
You are now being asked to submit to a test or tests at the discretion of a law enforcement officer in order to determine the alcohol and/or drug concentration in your system. You may be asked to perform a breath, blood, urine or physical test, or any combination of these. . . . You . . . have the right to obtain a sample of your breath, blood or urine for testing at your own expense.
The defendant was then taken to Exeter Hospital where two blood samples were drawn. The State Public Health Laboratory received the samples on April 28, 1997. On or about May 29, 1997, the laboratory mailed a copy of the defendant’s test results to the investigating officer of the New Hampshire State Police. The defendant first received copies of the test results on September 26, 1997, in his discovery packet from the Rockingham County Attorney’s office. Due to an apparent clerical error, the State laboratory had mistakenly mailed the test results to the investigating officer instead of to the records division of the State Police, which routinely mails copies of test results to both defendants and investigating officers.
On October 2, 1997, the defendant, through counsel, notified the State laboratory that he wanted to have an independent test performed on the second sample of blood that had been collected and requested that the second sample not be destroyed. The laboratory notified the defendant that the second sample had been destroyed some time in June or July 1997, after the thirty-day period set forth in
The defendant filed a motion in limine to suppress the results of his blood alcohol tests. The defendant argued that the State’s destruction of the blood samples before he was informed of the
On appeal, the State argues that its inadvertent violation of a statutory provision requiring that it provide the defendant with timely notice of his blood alcohol test results did not deprive him of due process. “We will not overturn the [trial] court’s ruling unless it is erroneous as a matter of law.” State v. Sywonds, 131 N.H. 532, 534, 556 A.2d 1175, 1177 (1989).
Before any test may be given, the law enforcement officer must “[i]nform the arrested person of his right to have a similar test or tests made by a person of his own choosing” and “[a]fford him an opportunity to request such an additional test.”
“On questions of statutory interpretation, this court is the final arbiter of the intent of the legislature as expressed in the words of a statute considered as a whole.” State v. Farrow, 140 N.H. 473, 474, 667 A.2d 1029, 1031 (1995) (quotation omitted). “This court will avoid construing statutes in a manner that would produce an unjust and seemingly illogical result.” Id. at 476, 667 A.2d at 1032. “When interpreting two statutes which deal with a similar subject matter, we will construe them so that they do not contradict each other, and so that they will lead to reasonable results and effectuate the legislative purpose of the statute.” Id. at 475, 667 A.2d at 1031.
We reject the State’s argument that the results should not be suppressed because
We also reject the State’s argument that the alternative means available to the defendant of attacking the test results obviates the need for suppressing them. The State cites Symonds, 131 N.H. at 536, 556 A.2d at 1179, to support its argument that the defendant could “raise a plethora of attacks upon the State’s evidence, e.g., machine malfunction, faulty calibration, extraneous interference, and operator error, without having to resort to the [blood] sample.” Symonds, however, is distinguishable from the present case. In Symonds, the police informed the defendant that he had thirty days to retrieve his second breath sample and that if he did not retrieve the sample during that time period, it would be destroyed. See id. at 533, 556 A.2d at 1177. Therefore, the defendant in Symonds had meaningful notice of the period during which his second breath sample would be available. In light of these facts, we noted the alternative means of attacking the State’s evidence available to the defendant. See id. at 536, 556 A.2d at 1179.
Furthermore, such alternative means of attacking the State’s evidence,
while certainly significant, [are] not likely to have the same evidentiary value as a second sample showing a different blood alcohol reading. Failing to preserve a second [blood] sample deprives the suspect of a potent piece of evidence with which to test the integrity of the State’s use of the [test results].
Opinion of the Justices, 131 N.H. 583, 587, 557 A.2d 1355, 1357 (1989). Therefore, these alternative means of attacking the State’s evidence do not obviate the need for suppressing the test results. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court properly granted the defendant’s motion to suppress.
Because we conclude that the statutory scheme required that the State provide the defendant with timely notice of the test results and that suppression was a proper remedy for the State’s statutory violation in this case, we need not reach the parties’ constitutional arguments. Cf. Quinlan v. City of Dover, 136 N.H. 226, 230, 614 A.2d
Affirmed, and remanded.
THAYER, J., did not sit; the others concurred.