Summary
The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a judgment upholding the suspension of Patricia Lynn Olson’s driving privileges for two years after a blood test showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.208 percent. The court held that the Report and Notice form provided sufficient grounds for the Department of Transportation to act and rejected Olson’s constitutional challenges to North Dakota’s implied-consent and criminal-refusal laws.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the officer's Report and Notice form contained sufficient information under North Dakota law to authorize the Department of Transportation to suspend Olson's driving privileges.
- Whether North Dakota's implied-consent and criminal-refusal statutes violated the constitutional provisions and doctrines asserted by Olson, including voluntariness, the Fourth Amendment, due process, unconstitutional conditions, vagueness, and N.D. Const. art. I, § 20.
Holdings
- The Report and Notice form contained sufficient information showing reasonable grounds to believe Olson was operating a noncommercial motor vehicle while under the influence and therefore authorized the Department to determine whether to suspend her driving privileges.
- Olson's constitutional challenges to North Dakota's implied-consent and criminal-refusal statutes were rejected because controlling North Dakota precedent had already upheld the challenged provisions and Olson provided no basis to revisit those decisions.
Key quotations
“We must affirm the Department’s order unless:” (¶ 6)
“Our case law does not impose a requirement that an officer provide a written statement detailing in actual physical control cases why the officer believed the arrestee was in actual physical control of a vehicle, or in driving under the influence cases why the officer believed the arrestee was driving a vehicle.” (¶ 9)
Factual background
Deputy Gordon LeClair approached Olson, who was seated in the driver's seat of an SUV parked at a motel parking lot, after learning that she might be under the influence. Olson had the keys in the ignition, smelled of alcohol, admitted drinking, failed field sobriety tests, and consented to a blood test after refusing a breath test. The blood test showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.208 percent, and the officer's Report and Notice form documented the location, the vehicle operation or physical-control basis, and alcohol-related probable-cause facts.
Procedural history
After Olson was arrested for actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence and her blood test showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.208 percent, she requested an administrative hearing. The Department found reasonable grounds, lawful arrest and testing, and an alcohol concentration above the legal limit, and suspended her driving privileges for two years. The district court affirmed, and the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court's judgment.