Opinion ID: 1814347
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Preliminary Breath Test

Text: Next, Howard urges that the county court should not have received Funkhouser's testimony that Howard refused to take a preliminary breath test. Without objection from the State, the county court had sustained Howard's pretrial motion to suppress any evidence concerning any chemical tests of [his] blood, breath, or urine for the presence of alcohol by noting on its trial docket: Chemical test suppressed. Mot. in limine granted. The motion made no mention of the preliminary breath test, and at trial, despite Howard's continuing objections, the county court allowed Funkhouser to testify that Howard refused to take the preliminary breath test. Howard contends that under the county court's order, his refusal to take the test should have been suppressed along with evidence concerning the later chemical test. The problem with Howard's argument is that the preliminary test and the later chemical test are separate and distinct tests. Preliminary breath tests are authorized by § 60-6,197(3), which reads: Any peace officer ... may require any person who operates ... a motor vehicle in this state to submit to a preliminary test of his or her breath for alcohol concentration if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that such person has alcohol in his or her body, has committed a moving traffic violation, or has been involved in a traffic accident. Any person who refuses to submit to such preliminary breath test... shall be placed under arrest. Any person who refuses to submit to such preliminary breath test shall be guilty of a Class V misdemeanor. Chemical tests are authorized by § 60-6,197(1): Any person who operates or has in his or her actual physical control a motor vehicle in this state shall be deemed to have given his or her consent to submit to a chemical test or tests of his or her blood, breath, or urine for the purpose of determining the concentration of alcohol or the presence of drugs in such blood, breath, or urine. Section 60-6,197(2) empowers a properly authorized peace officer to require any person arrested for any offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed while the person was driving or was in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcoholic liquor or drugs to submit to a chemical test or tests of his or her blood, breath, or urine for the purpose of determining the concentration of alcohol or the presence of drugs in such blood, breath, or urine when the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that such person was driving or was in the actual physical control of a motor vehicle in this state while under the influence of alcoholic liquor or drugs in violation of section 60-6,196. Not only have we ruled that the refusal to submit to a preliminary breath test is a separate criminal offense from refusal to submit to a chemical test, State v. Green, 238 Neb. 475, 471 N.W.2d 402 (1991), we have written that [t]he `preliminary test' referred to in § 39-669.08(3) [now § 60-6,197(3) ] is a different procedure and not such a `chemical test' or `chemical analysis' as to satisfy requirements for a conviction under § 39-669.07 [now § 60-6,197(4) ], State v. Green, 217 Neb. 70, 73-74, 348 N.W.2d 429, 431 (1984). The two tests were offered to Howard at different times and for different purposes; whereas the preliminary test was merely to determine whether alcohol was present in Howard's breath, the chemical test was administered to determine whether the amount of alcohol in his breath or blood exceeded the limits permitted by Neb.Rev.Stat. § 60-6,196 (Reissue 1993). As both Howard's motion to suppress and the county court's order granting the motion refer only to chemical tests, the chemical test referred to in the suppression order is that referenced as such in the statutes and not that which the statutes reference as a preliminary breath test.