Opinion ID: 2586146
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the totality of the circumstances justified the warrantless draw of ms. rodriguez's blood

Text: ¶ 51 Whether exigent circumstances are present to justify a warrantless intrusion depends on all of the circumstances surrounding the search or seizure and the nature of the search or seizure itself. United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 537, 105 S.Ct. 3304, 87 L.Ed.2d 381 (1985). Applying the exigency assessment guideposts set out in City of Orem v. Henrie, 868 P.2d 1384, 1388 (Utah Ct.App.1994), the court of appeals held that the blood draw failed the totality of the circumstances test. Our own review of the facts surrounding the blood draw compels us to the opposite conclusion reached by the court of appeals. This outcome is the result of balancing the state's interest in collecting evidence against the defendant's interests in privacy and bodily integrity. ¶ 52 The court of appeals concluded that the totality of the circumstances fell short of meeting the State's obligation to show exigent circumstances which justified its warrantless blood draw. It did credit the district court for taking into account the inherent dissipation of alcohol in the blood, the seriousness of the accident, and the clear presence of probable cause to believe that alcohol contributed to the accident. ¶ 53 Nevertheless, the court of appeals found the district court's failure to account for the question of time, the proximity of the magistrate, the alternatives explored and discarded by the officers, the delay the officers faced, the impact of the delay in obtaining viable evidence, and the point of time in the accident investigation when the decision was made to extract Ms. Rodriguez's blood was fatal to the trial court's totality of the circumstances analysis. State v. Rodriguez, 2004 UT App 198, ¶ 17, 93 P.3d 854. In sum, the court of appeals appeared to focus its attention on the fact that the officers never considered applying for a warrant, much less exploring or discarding alternative courses of action. ¶ 54 We do not disregard this roster of relevant considerations compiled by the court of appeals. Each has its place in contributing to a clear understanding of what a reasonable officer would have apprehended at the time Ms. Rodriguez's blood draw occurred. See, e.g., Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 39, 117 S.Ct. 417, 136 L.Ed.2d 347 (1996). We are dismayed by the officers' failure to consider the notion that the extraction of blood from a person's body might constitute a search requiring a warrant. In light of the confidence expressed earlier in this opinion in the evolving professionalism of the law enforcement officials who participated in Ms. Rodriguez's blood draw, we consider the major constitutional blind spot that this incident exposed disturbing. ¶ 55 We do not, however, agree with the court of appeals that the officers' belief that warrantless blood extractions were routine dooms the State's quest for exigency. Although we are concerned that the officers did not consider the warrant requirement, the subjective assessment about the need for a warrant is largely irrelevant to our totality of the circumstances analysis. It is an objective analysis in which the thought processes of any particular officer plays no role. ¶ 56 We also have misgivings about the certainty with which the court of appeals concluded that the decision to extract Ms. Rodriguez's blood was made at a time when courts are open and search warrants can be readily requested. Rodriguez, 2004 UT App 198, ¶ 19, 93 P.3d 854. It is not clear to us that this assertion can be credibly derived from the agreed-upon fact that the accident occurred between 4:45 and 4:50 p.m. on a Wednesday. ¶ 57 Although we know that no one considered requesting a warrant before drawing Ms. Rodriguez's blood, the record reveals much about what the officers understood regarding the accident and Ms. Rodriguez's condition from the time the collision occurred until the time Ms. Rodriguez's blood was drawn. One fact dominates all others with respect to its relevance to whether the warrantless blood draw was reasonable: that Ms. Stewart was expected to succumb to her injuries. This fact significantly altered the warrant acquisition calculus that a reasonable law enforcement officer who has probable cause to believe an alcohol-related offense has occurred could be expected to apply. The severity of the possible alcohol-related offense bears directly on the presence or absence of an exigency sufficient to justify a blood draw without a warrant. ¶ 58 In this sense, warrantless blood draws are never routine. Without the presence of other compelling circumstances, a law enforcement official who stopped a pedestrian suspected of public intoxication would not face an exigency sufficient to justify a warrantless blood draw. In such cases, the state has a negligible interest in acquiring the quality of alcohol evidence provided by a blood test uncompromised by considerations of dissipation during the warrant application process. Where an alcohol-related offense is minor, a warrantless blood draw, however modest it may be in the spectrum of bodily intrusions, will trespass on important constitutional rights. ¶ 59 Even where, as here, the alcohol-related offense is very serious, a warrantless blood draw cannot be routine. Here, the evidence supporting the conclusion that probable cause existed to believe that Ms. Rodriguez was intoxicated at the time of the accident was overwhelming. Not only was a vodka bottle found at the scene, but the officer noted her slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, and odor of alcohol when he encountered Ms. Rodriguez at the hospital. The likelihood that the blood draw would detect alcohol was great. We agree with the district court that the seriousness of the accident coupled with the compelling evidence of Ms. Rodriguez's alcohol impairment is sufficient to establish that the interests of law enforcement outweighed, in this instance, Ms. Rodriguez's privacy interests. ¶ 60 In making what we believe to be the discerning inquiry into the justifications for the intrusion mandated by Justice Brennan in Winston v. Lee, 470 U.S. 753, 760, 105 S.Ct. 1611, 84 L.Ed.2d 662 (1985), we have not cast aside the Henrie factors that the court of appeals applied to reach a result contrary to ours. As our rejection of the State's quest for per se exigency makes clear, practical considerations associated with warrant acquisition remain central to inquiries into whether exigent circumstances justify a warrantless search. As technology reduces the amount of time necessary to obtain a warrant, we would expect a corresponding increase in the use of warrants. ¶ 61 Our result today is the product of our judgment that in this case the facts relating to the Henrie factors were subordinate to considerations of the severity of the accident and attendant offense and the obvious presence of Ms. Rodriguez's alcohol impairment as a contributing cause of Ms. Stewart's death.