Opinion ID: 879076
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Heading: Defendant's consent and evanescent blood alcohol removed the warrant requirement from the arrest.

Text: Section 46-5-103, MCA, states: No search and seizure, whether with or without warrant, shall be held to be illegal as to a defendant if: (1) the defendant has disclaimed any right to or interest in the place or object searched or the instruments, articles, or things seized.... Defendant consented to the pre-arrest investigation. The police may conduct a valid warrantless search if they have a voluntary and intelligent consent to do so. Knowledge of the right to withhold consent, while a factor to be considered, is not a prerequisite to establishing a voluntary and intelligent consent. The police do not have to warn a person of the right to withhold consent. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte (1973), 412 U.S. 218, 227, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2048, 36 L.Ed.2d 854, 863. The voluntariness is viewed under the totality of the circumstances. State v. Stemple (1982), 198 Mont. 409, 412-413, 646 P.2d 539, 541. Officer Fisher entered the premises upon probable cause to investigate the citizen's report. He personally observed defendant acting in an intoxicated manner. He asked defendant to take the sobriety tests, and defendant voluntarily consented. Before being placed in custody, defendant freely admitted that he had been drinking and driving. Although defense counsel failed to raise the issue at trial, defendant alleges in his appeal that his admissions were made without Miranda warnings and are, therefore, inadmissible. However, Miranda only applies to custodial interrogation. Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 706. An interrogation will not be considered custodial if the individual is free to leave. Berkemer v. McCarty (1984), 468 U.S. 420, 440, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 3151, 82 L.Ed.2d 317, 335. When a defendant is the focus of an investigation, the threshold Miranda question is whether the defendant was significantly deprived of his freedom. State v. Lapp (1983), 202 Mont. 327, 332, 658 P.2d 400, 403. Defendant Ellinger was neither deprived of any freedom, nor in custody, during his admissions and sobriety tests outside his house. Defendant voluntarily left the confines of his house. He answered the undersheriff's questions without objection. Nowhere in the record did defendant indicate that he was unable to withdraw from the conversation, withdraw from the sobriety tests, and retreat into his house. Defendant had multiple opportunities to stop the interrogation and testing, yet freely consented to further proceeding. Therefore, defendant's Miranda rights did not engage until he had been placed in custody. Upon arrest, Undersheriff Fisher informed the defendant of his Miranda rights. Undersheriff Fisher also sought to preserve the evidence of evanescent alcohol in defendant's blood by administering a breathalyzer test. The nearest test facility was in Roundup, which was seventeen miles away. The undersheriff needed to promptly transport the defendant to the facility because the percentage of alcohol in the blood decreases rapidly with time. Although the Welsh court found no need to make a warrantless arrest to preserve evanescent evidence in a civil case, this Court has held that the police may seize any evidence which is likely to disappear before a warrant can be obtained, such as a blood sample containing alcohol. State v. Deshner (1971), 158 Mont. 188, 193, 489 P.2d 1290, 1293; Schmerber v. California (1966), 384 U.S. 757, 771, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 1836, 16 L.Ed.2d 908, 920. In conclusion, we hold that the arrest was valid. The undersheriff had probable cause with precise information from a citizen's report. The defendant's expectation of privacy was not violated on the walkway outside his house. The warrantless arrest preserved evanescent evidence. Issue No. 2 If the arrest was not valid, should the charges have been dismissed? Defendant claims that his arrest was unlawful and therefore the charges should have been dismissed. However, an unlawful arrest has no impact on subsequent prosecution. This Court has held: An illegal arrest does not preclude the State from proceeding on a criminal charge against him. State v. Woods (Mont.1983), 662 P.2d 579, 581, 40 St.Rep. 533, 534. Furthermore, an invalid arrest is not a defense to being convicted of the offense charged. An illegal arrest, without more, has never been viewed as a bar to subsequent prosecution, nor as a defense to a valid conviction ... Woods, 622 P.2d at 581, 40 St.Rep. at 535, citing United States v. Crews (1980), 445 U.S. 463, 474, 100 S.Ct. 1244, 1251, 63 L.Ed.2d 537, 547. If, arguendo, the arrest was invalid, the conviction remains supported on the basis of the defendant's admissions and his .22 blood alcohol level. Affirmed. WEBER, SHEEHY, GULBRANDSON and HUNT, JJ., concur.