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SCWC-19-0000504

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF HAWAI‘I

________________________________________________________________

STATE OF HAWAI‘I, Petitioner/Plaintiff-Appellant,

vs.

JERAMY M. TRONSON, Respondent/Defendant-Appellee.

________________________________________________________________

CERTIORARI TO THE INTERMEDIATE COURT OF APPEALS

(CAAP-19-0000504; CASE NO. 1DTA-19-00119)

SUMMARY DISPOSITION ORDER

(By: Recktenwald, C.J., Nakayama, and

Circuit Judge Wong, assigned by reason of vacancy, 

with Wilson, J., dissenting, with whom McKenna, J., joins)

I. INTRODUCTION

Petitioner/Plaintiff-Appellant State of Hawai‘i (State) 

filed a timely application for a writ of certiorari from the 

July 31, 2020 judgment on appeal of the Intermediate Court of 

Appeals (ICA) entered pursuant to the ICA’s June 30, 2020 

Memorandum Opinion, which affirmed the May 9, 2019 judgment of 

Electronically Filed

Supreme Court

SCWC-19-0000504

09-NOV-2022

09:07 AM

Dkt. 17 SO
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the District Court of the First Circuit.1 The district court’s 

judgment granted Respondent/Defendant-Appellee Jeramy M. 

Tronson’s Motion to Suppress Statements after finding that 

Tronson was subject to custodial interrogation without being 

given Miranda warnings.

We hold that under our decision in State v. 

Sagapolutele-Silva, 151 Hawai‘i 283, 511 P.3d 782 (2022), Tronson

was not in custody at the time he was asked the medical rule-out 

questions as the record does not support the conclusion that the 

circumstances of his stop rose to that of a formal arrest. The 

ICA erred to the extent it held otherwise.

II. BACKGROUND

Tronson was pulled over at around 3:30 a.m. by a 

Honolulu Police Department (HPD) officer after almost hitting 

the officer’s car. After being informed why he was stopped, 

Tronson apologized to the officer for almost hitting his car. 

The officer noticed that Tronson’s eyes were red and glassy, his 

speech was slurred, and his breath smelled like alcohol. The 

officer asked Tronson if he was willing to participate in a

Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST), and Tronson agreed. 

Prior to administering the test, the officer asked, and Tronson 

answered in the negative, the medical rule-out questions. 

1 The Honorable Summer M.M. Kupau-Odo presided.
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Tronson was arrested and charged with Operating a 

Vehicle Under the Influence of an Intoxicant (OVUII) in 

violation of Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 291E-61(a)(1) 

(Supp. 2018)2 and Reckless Driving in violation of HRS § 291-2

(2007).3 As relevant here, Tronson moved to suppress his answers 

to the medical rule-out questions.4 The district court ruled 

that Tronson was in custody at the time these questions were 

asked, and the ICA affirmed that finding. The ICA acknowledged 

that the test for determining whether a suspect is in custody 

requires consideration of the totality of the circumstances, but 

emphasized the existence of probable cause to arrest Tronson for 

2 HRS § 291E-61(a)(1) provides in relevant part: 

(a) A person commits the offense of operating a vehicle 

under the influence of an intoxicant if the person 

operates or assumes actual physical control of a 

vehicle:

(1) While under the influence of alcohol in 

an amount sufficient to impair the person’s 

normal mental faculties or ability to care for 

the person and guard against casualty[.]

3 HRS § 291-2 provides: “Whoever operates any vehicle . . . 

recklessly in disregard of the safety of persons or property is guilty of 

reckless driving of vehicle . . . and shall be fined not more than $1,000 or 

imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.”

4 Tronson’s motion to suppress also sought to suppress all of his 

statements subsequent to the traffic stop. The district court granted this 

motion in full. On appeal, the ICA affirmed the district court’s suppression 

of Tronson’s answers to the medical rule-out questions, while vacating the 

court’s suppression of Tronson’s answers to whether he would participate in 

the SFST and understood the SFST instructions as well as the results of the 

SFST. Because the State’s application for writ of certiorari only contests 

the ICA’s decision as to the medical rule-out questions, and because Tronson

did not file an application for writ of certiorari, the latter determinations 

are not at issue in this order.
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Reckless Driving. State v. Tronson, 147 Hawai‘i 628, 465 P.3d 

1075, 2020 WL 3542147, at *4-5 (App. June 30, 2020) (mem. op.). 

The ICA also held that the medical rule-out questions 

constituted interrogation. Id. at *7.

A. District Court Suppression Proceedings

The district court held a hearing on Tronson’s motion 

to suppress on May 9, 2019. After hearing testimony from the 

State’s sole witness, HPD Officer Tyler Maalo, the district 

court found that Tronson “was in custody for Miranda purposes at 

the time of the stop . . . because . . . clearly the officer had 

probable cause to arrest [] Tronson even before he approached 

the vehicle based on his observations of defendant’s driving.” 

The district court granted Tronson’s motion to suppress. Its 

written conclusions of law (COLs) state in relevant part as 

follows:

5. To determine whether “interrogation” is “custodial,” [the 

court] look[s] to the totality of the circumstances, focusing on 

‘the place and time of the interrogation, the length of the 

interrogation, the nature of the questions asked, the conduct of 

the police, and [any] other relevant circumstances.’” [State v. 

]Ketchum, [97 Hawaiʻi 107,] 122[, 34 P.3d 1006, 1021 (2001) 

(citations omitted).] Among the “other relevant circumstances” 

to be considered are whether the investigation has focused on the 

suspect and whether the police have probable cause to arrest the 

suspect. (First, second, and third alterations in original).

6. At the time when Officer Maalo first approached 

Defendant while he was seated in his vehicle, there existed 

probable cause to arrest Defendant for the offense of 

Reckless Driving; and Defendant was not free to leave. 

Accordingly, at this time, Defendant was “in custody” for 

Miranda purposes.

The State appealed.
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B. ICA Proceedings

On appeal, the State challenged the district court’s 

conclusion that Tronson was subject to custodial interrogation. 

In essence, the State claimed that “Miranda warnings were not 

required, because Tronson was not in custody or interrogated 

before the SFST had been administered and [he] was arrested for 

OVUII.” 

In a memorandum opinion, the ICA agreed with the 

district court that Tronson was in custody and subject to 

interrogation when asked the medical rule-out questions. Citing 

State v. Ah Loo, 94 Hawaiʻi 207, 211, 10 P.3d 728, 732 (2000),

the ICA acknowledged that Tronson was not in custody simply 

because he was seized. Tronson, 2020 WL 3542147, at *4. But 

the ICA still concluded that Tronson was in custody, based

primarily on the existence of probable cause to arrest for 

Reckless Driving:

As we further noted in Sagapolutele-Silva, there is 

no requirement for the police to arrest a suspect once 

probable cause is established. Sagapolutele-Silva, 2020 WL 

1699907 at *6 (citation omitted). The police need not halt 

an investigation the moment they have the minimum evidence 

to establish probable cause because it may fall short of 

evidence necessary to support a criminal conviction. Id. 

Nevertheless, “[a]n individual in police custody may not be 

subjected to interrogation without first being advised of 

his Miranda rights.” Id. (citation and internal quotation 

marks omitted).

Under the totality of the circumstances in this case, 

Tronson was in custody for Reckless Driving. Officer Maalo 

had probable cause to arrest him for Reckless Driving when 

he stopped him. In addition, as discussed below, upon his 

initial conversation with Tronson, Officer Maalo had a 

reasonable suspicion that he was driving while intoxicated. 
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Officer Maalo testified that Tronson was not free to leave 

from the time he was stopped. Under the totality of the 

circumstances, the District Court did not err in COL 6 in 

concluding that Tronson was in custody and that Tronson 

should have been given Miranda warnings prior to any

interrogation.

Id. at *5.

Finally, the ICA held that the medical rule-out 

questions were interrogation. Accordingly, the ICA affirmed the 

district court’s suppression of Tronson’s responses to the 

medical rule-out questions. 

 The State filed a timely application for writ of 

certiorari.

C. Application for Writ of Certiorari

The State raises three questions in its application:

1. Whether the ICA gravely erred in holding that 

Respondent-Defendant-Appellee, Jeramy M. Tronson (Tronson) 

was in custody as soon as Honolulu Police Department (HPD) 

Officer Tyler Maalo pulled him over.

2. Whether the ICA gravely erred in holding that the 

medical rule-out questions asked as part of the Standard 

Field Sobriety Test (SFST) are interrogation.

3. Whether the ICA gravely erred in suppressing 

Tronson’s answers to the medical rule-out questions. 

Tronson did not file a response. 

III. DISCUSSION

As we recently held in Sagapolutele-Silva, 151 Hawai‘i

at 287, 511 P.3d at 786, the test to determine whether a person 

is in custody is one of the totality of the circumstances, 

objectively appraised from the perspective of a reasonable 

person in the suspect’s position. 
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Applied here, Tronson was not in custody. The 

circumstances of Tronson’s detention amounted to no more than a 

routine traffic stop, not the functional equivalent of a formal 

arrest. Tronson was stopped briefly in public. Although 

Officer Maalo believed he had probable cause to arrest Tronson

for Reckless Driving, Officer Maalo did not tell Tronson that he

was not free to go or otherwise restrain him from leaving. As 

we explained in Sagapolutele-Silva, 151 Hawai‘i at 296, 511 P.3d 

at 795, “[w]hile ‘[a]n officer’s knowledge or beliefs may bear 

upon the custody issue if they are conveyed, by word or deed, to 

the individual being questioned,’ they ‘are relevant only to the 

extent they would affect how a reasonable person in the position 

of the individual being questioned would gauge the breadth of 

his or her “freedom of action.”’” (quoting Stansbury v. 

California, 511 U.S. 318, 325 (1994)) (second alteration in 

original). Officer Maalo informed Tronson why he stopped him, 

and Tronson apologized to Officer Maalo for almost hitting his 

car, but there is nothing to indicate that Tronson understood 

that he had implicated himself in a crime that could lead to his 

arrest. The point of arrest had not arrived, and Miranda

warnings were not required.5 

5 Because Tronson was not in custody at the time the medical ruleout questions were asked, we need not reach the issue of interrogation; 

Miranda warnings were not required. 
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Accordingly, we hold that the ICA erred in affirming 

the district court’s suppression of Tronson’s answers to the 

medical rule-out questions.

IV. CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, the ICA erred in affirming 

the district court’s suppression of Tronson’s responses to the 

medical rule-out questions. The ICA’s July 31, 2020 judgment on 

appeal and the district court’s May 9, 2019 judgment are vacated 

as to the suppression of those responses.

In all other respects, the judgment of the ICA is 

affirmed. This case is remanded to the district court for 

further proceedings consistent with this order.

DATED: Honolulu, Hawai‘i, November 9, 2022.

Brian R. Vincent, /s/ Mark E. Recktenwald

for petitioner

/s/ Paula A. Nakayama

Alen M. Kaneshiro,

for respondent /s/ Paul B.K. Wong