Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 10, 1991 TAG: 9104100546
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected two drivers' claims that the test was an unconstitutional search and seizure.
The three-judge panel upheld the convictions of Elizabeth Reid and Lucy Boylan for driving while intoxicated in separate incidents in 1989 on the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Northern Virginia.
U.S. District Judge Albert V. Bryan Jr. of Alexandria had upheld the two women's convictions by a federal magistrate.
The women had argued that police should have obtained a warrant before making them take the breath test, which measures the amount of alcohol in the body.
But the appeals court said obtaining the warrant would delay the test and allow time for the driver's alcohol level to be reduced.
"The crime of DWI presents a unique situation in that the most reliable evidence of whether a person is driving while `legally drunk' is contained in that person's body," said the opinion written by Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin III.
"The best means of obtaining evidence of the breath alcohol content, and the least intrusive way of testing, is the breathalyzer test," he wrote.
"These limited intrusions to prevent the destruction of evidence were not unreasonable, as they were searches incident to lawful arrests," the opinion said.
by CNB