Opinion ID: 1813789
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: denial of motion to suppress dna evidence

Text: Freeman argues the Court of Appeals erred in not finding that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the DNA evidence. On February 11, 1994, the State received a court order permitting it to extract blood and saliva samples from Freeman. Freeman refused to comply with the order. He was physically held down, and blood was forcibly drawn from his body. Freeman argues that because the court order provided that if he refused to permit the extraction of his blood and saliva he would be held in contempt, the extraction of such fluids exceeded the authority of the order. We conclude that this argument has no merit. As the Court of Appeals correctly determined, the officers' actions in obtaining the blood sample are not a basis for complaint, because the court order was not necessary for the withdrawal of blood against Freeman's will. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 29-3304 (Reissue 1995) provides as follows: No order shall be required or necessary where the individual has been lawfully arrested, nor under any circumstances where peace officers may otherwise lawfully require or request the individual to provide evidence of identifying physical characteristics, and no order shall be required in the course of trials or other judicial proceedings. Pursuant to Neb.Rev.Stat. § 29-3301 (Reissue 1995), the term identifying physical characteristics includes blood samples and saliva samples. It is undisputed that Freeman was incarcerated in the Douglas County Correctional Center following a lawful arrest. Therefore, the officers who extracted Freeman's blood sample had authority pursuant to § 29-3304 to require or force Freeman to give them a blood sample. A trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, apart from determinations of reasonable suspicion to conduct investigatory stops and probable cause to perform warrantless searches, is to be upheld on appeal unless its findings of fact are clearly erroneous. In making this determination, an appellate court does not reweigh the evidence or resolve conflicts in the evidence, but, rather, recognizes the trial court as the finder of fact and takes into consideration that it observed the witnesses. State v. Ready, 252 Neb. 816, 565 N.W.2d 728 (1997); State v. McCleery, 251 Neb. 940, 560 N.W.2d 789 (1997); State v. Konfrst, 251 Neb. 214, 556 N.W.2d 250 (1996). Therefore, the evidence of the blood sample was properly admissible, and the denial of Freeman's motion to suppress was not clearly erroneous.