Opinion ID: 2521897
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the police procured a warrantless blood draw

Text: ¶ 15 Detective Roberts testified that to obtain a warrant he customarily follows a certain procedure. This procedure requires him to review all the information with the officers at the scene, call another detective to help draft and review the warrant with the district attorney, and then obtain a district court judge's signature, which is available by electronic communication. ¶ 16 Detective Roberts never attempted to secure a warrant. When the blood technician, Brian Davis, arrived, Detective Roberts informed Mr. Davis of the need to obtain a warrant and that the process would take a couple of hours. When Mr. Davis learned that Ms. Tripp's nonconsent stemmed from her fear of needles, the two agreed that Mr. Davis would talk to Ms. Tripp to work around [her] fear of needles, and that Ms. Tripp might give her consent because Mr. Davis was not ... a police officer or involved in any of the original investigation [and] that she might be easier with [his] demeanor. Detective Roberts ordered Officer Monson to supervise the situation between Mr. Davis and Ms. Tripp. Detective Roberts did not return until Mr. Davis had drawn a blood sample. ¶ 17 Mr. Davis spoke with Ms. Tripp for about ten to fifteen minutes. Talking about six inches from Ms. Tripp's face, Mr. Davis noticed a slight odor of alcohol coming from Ms. Tripp's mouth. Mr. Davis testified that Ms. Tripp continually insisted that she was afraid of needles and wanted her husband. Mr. Davis also testified that [a] couple of times during [the] conversation [he] kind of paraphrased her civil entitlements and told her about her right to counsel and the right to remain silent. ¶ 18 At about 9:00 p.m., Mr. Davis took a blood sample from Ms. Tripp. During the draw, Ms. Tripp sat in the backseat of Detective Roberts's car. The door was open, and she sat with her legs and arms outside the car. Mr. Davis recalled that Ms. Tripp was a little upset with Officer Monson. Mr. Davis told Ms. Tripp, You know, just let me put the tourniquet on your arm, see if we can find a spot that would be easy to do this. Ms. Tripp told him, [W]e'll go ahead and do that. Ms. Tripp stuck her arm out for Davis. He rolled up her sleeve and applied the tourniquet. Ms. Budd kneeled down to hold Ms. Tripp's other hand. Mr. Davis then said, [W]e can go ahead and take care of this. But, as Mr. Davis testified, he did not think that Ms. Tripp knew he had all his equipment ready. Ms. Budd told Ms. Tripp not to look at the needle because she was afraid of needles and take a deep breath. Officer Monson shield[ed] Ms. Tripp's eyes so [she] wouldn't look at the needle. Mr. Davis stuck Ms. Tripp with the needle as quickly as he could and drew the blood. The draw did not take long. According to Mr. Davis and Ms. Budd, Ms. Tripp never said no and she did not tell Mr. Davis to stop. However, Officer Monson testified that during the draw, Ms. Tripp was upset; to me [she] looked terrified. Officer Monson did not remember Ms. Tripp's exact words, but he testified: She was pulling away. She was crying. ¶ 19 After the draw, Ms. Tripp appeared to calm down; she did not say anything, but she stopped crying. Ms. Budd observed that Ms. Tripp was very calm after the draw, and that Ms. Tripp said it wasn't as bad as she thought. A toxicology report of Ms. Tripp's blood sample revealed a blood alcohol level of.089 and a metabolite of cocaine.