Court Opinion

ID: 9797882
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:31:25.617077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:59:18.843030
License: Public Domain

Opinion
BAXTER, J.
A concerned citizen followed defendant, who was driving dangerously and under the influence of alcohol, through the streets of Santa Barbara in the early evening of July 21, 2003. Although defendant sped away *815and managed to get home, the police, with that citizen’s assistance, arrived at the house a short time later. The officers spoke to defendant, who remained inside the house and was visibly intoxicated. When defendant refused to come outside to have his blood tested for the presence of alcohol, the police became anxious about the dissipation of alcohol in his bloodstream and entered the house without a warrant to arrest him for the criminal offense of driving under the influence (DUI).
Relying on Welsh v. Wisconsin (1984) 466 U.S. 740 [80 L.Ed.2d 732, 104 S.Ct. 2091] (Welsh), the Court of Appeal determined that the Fourth Amendment categorically prohibits warrantless entries into the home to effect a DUI arrest when the asserted exigency is merely to prevent the destruction of blood-alcohol evidence. Based on its conclusion that the arrest was unlawful, the Court of Appeal suppressed all the evidence seized during and after the warrantless entry.
Because the Court of Appeal has misread Welsh and because exigent circumstances justified the warrantless entry to effect the DUI arrest here, we reverse the Court of Appeal. We therefore need not consider the People’s additional argument that even if the arrest violated the Fourth Amendment, evidence seized outside the home subsequent to the arrest—including the results of a blood-alcohol test—are nonetheless admissible under New York v. Harris (1990) 495 U.S. 14 [109 L.Ed.2d 13, 110 S.Ct. 1640].
Background
On July 21, 2003, Madelene Orvos returned to her apartment complex in Santa Barbara from a walk at the beach with her dogs. She found defendant Daniel Lyon Thompson passed out in a white Ford Bronco in her assigned parking space. A neighbor came out, woke defendant up, and asked him to leave. Before defendant left, Orvos saw him stumble around, toss an empty vodka bottle out of the Bronco, and pass out a second time in the vehicle. She could tell he was intoxicated.
Having seen defendant in this condition on many prior occasions, Orvos decided this time to follow defendant and called 911 to report the situation as she got into her car. Defendant ran a red light and drove about 70 miles per hour when he got onto the freeway, at one point going “way to his right. . . close to the concrete on the side of the road.” He exited the freeway and turned right onto State Street from the center lane. After defendant turned right onto South Ontare Road, Orvos fell behind because he was running stop signs and driving too fast in a neighborhood where children were present. Fortunately, Santa Barbara Police Officer Adrian Gutierrez arrived at 7:15 *816p.m., just as Orvos lost track of the Bronco. Gutierrez instructed Orvos to wait at the parking lot of the nearby golf course while he continued the pursuit.
Officer Gutierrez proceeded to 3610 San Jose Lane, which was the address of the Bronco’s registered owner, and found the white Bronco parked in front. When Officer Ryan Dejohn arrived to assist, Gutierrez went back to update Orvos and asked her to follow him to identify the vehicle. After Orvos did so, Gutierrez touched the hood of the vehicle and discovered the hood was warm, indicating the Bronco had been driven very recently. He and Dejohn approached the front door, which was wide open, and rang the doorbell.
Slavka Kovarick answered the door. Officer Dejohn asked her who had been driving the Bronco. Kovarick said that Daniel owned the vehicle. Dejohn asked to speak to him, but Kovarick said he was asleep. When Dejohn asked whether she could wake Daniel up, Kovarick entered a bedroom directly to the left of the front door. She remained there a few moments and came back to tell them she could not wake Daniel up. She also refused to let the officers inside and instead walked away.
Officer Dejohn heard people speaking softly down the hall and then saw a tall shirtless White male, about 45 years old, leave the house and go into the backyard. This man, later identified as defendant, matched the description Orvos had provided of the driver. When defendant turned around, he made eye contact with Dejohn, who motioned for him to come to the front door. Defendant reentered the house and approached the officers by exiting the bedroom door near the entryway. He was staggering or swaying slightly, slurring his speech, and gave off a strong odor of alcohol. Dejohn, who addressed defendant as Daniel, explained that they suspected him of driving under the influence of alcohol and wanted to talk to him and perform some tests, but defendant refused to cooperate. As defendant began to walk away, Dejohn entered the house. He was afraid defendant might flee, so he placed his hand on defendant’s shoulder. Defendant turned around and grabbed the doorjamb to the bedroom near the entry way. Officer Gutierrez entered the house only to assist Dejohn in effecting the arrest.
After defendant was handcuffed, Orvos identified defendant as the driver. His blood test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.21 percent. On the way to the jail, defendant told Officer Dejohn, “I’ll kick your fucking ass.”
Following a hearing on defendant’s motion to suppress, the trial court found there was probable cause to arrest defendant based on Orvos’s report of the driver’s behavior, defendant’s resemblance to the description Orvos *817had provided of the driver, and defendant’s visible intoxication. Under these circumstances, it was a “reasonable implication” that defendant was the driver. Relying on People v. Hampton (1985) 164 Cal.App.3d 27 [209 Cal.Rptr. 905], the trial court also found that the warrantless entry to arrest defendant was justified by exigent circumstances—i.e., the need to preserve the evidence of defendant’s blood-alcohol level.
Defendant then pleaded no contest to driving with a blood-alcohol level in excess of 0.08 percent (Veh. Code, §23152, subd. (b)) and to resisting an officer in the performance of his duties (Pen. Code, § 148, subd. (a)(1)) and admitted two prior convictions within the meaning of Vehicle Code section 23546. He was sentenced to 24 months, execution of which was suspended for three years under specified conditions.
A divided panel of the Appellate Division of the Santa Barbara County Superior Court affirmed the denial of the suppression motion, relying on “[t]he exigencies of preventing defendant from fleeing and possibly again driving while intoxicated, and of preserving evidence of his blood-alcohol content.” The Court of Appeal transferred the matter under rule 62 of the California Rules of Court and reversed in a published opinion. The court disagreed that defendant “was likely to flee and again drive while intoxicated” and declared that the likelihood evidence of driving under the influence would be concealed or destroyed by the passage of time could not justify a warrantless entry into a residence under Welsh.
We granted the People’s petition for review.
Discussion
“The Fourth Amendment protects ‘[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.’ In conformity with the rule at common law, a warrantless arrest by a law officer is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment where there is probable cause to believe that a criminal offense has been or is being committed.” (Devenpeck v. Alford (2004) 543 U.S. 146, 152 [160 L.Ed.2d 537, 125 S.Ct. 588].) When, as here, the arrest occurs in the home, additional principles come into play. “It is a ‘basic principle of Fourth Amendment law’ that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.” (Payton v. New York (1980) 445 U.S. 573, 586 [63 L.Ed.2d 639, 100 S.Ct. 1371].) Indeed, “the ‘physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.’ ” (Id. at p. 585.) The requirement of a warrant “minimizes the danger of needless intrusions of that sort.” (Id. at p. 586.)
Yet, as with so much of its Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, the high court has stopped short of erecting a categorical bar. The presumption of *818unreasonableness that attaches to a warrantless entry into the home “can be overcome by a showing of one of the few ‘specifically established and well-delineated exceptions’ to the warrant requirement (Katz v. United States (1967) 389 U.S. 347, 357 [19 L.Ed.2d 576, 88 S.Ct. 507]), such as ‘ “hot pursuit of a fleeing felon, or imminent destruction of evidence, ... or the need to prevent a suspect’s escape, or the risk of danger to the police or to other persons inside or outside the dwelling” ’ (Minnesota v. Olson (1990) 495 U.S. 91, 100 [109 L.Ed.2d 85, 110 S.Ct. 1684]). The United States Supreme Court has indicated that entry into a home based on exigent circumstances requires probable cause to believe that the entry is justified by one of these factors such as the imminent destruction of evidence or the need to prevent a suspect’s escape.” (People v. Celis (2004) 33 Cal.4th 667, 676 [16 Cal.Rptr.3d 85, 93 P.3d 1027].)
Defendant asserts that the warrantless entry here was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. He argues in particular that the police lacked probable cause to arrest him and that, even if probable cause existed, Welsh precluded a finding of exigent circumstances for warrantless DUI arrests in the home.
The trial court found that probable cause existed to arrest defendant and that the warrantless entry was justified by exigent circumstances. Because the underlying facts are undisputed, we review the trial court’s rulings independently. (People v. Williams (1988) 45 Cal.3d 1268, 1301 [248 Cal.Rptr. 834, 756 P.2d 221].)
A. Did Probable Cause Exist to Justify an Arrest of Defendant for DUI?
We first consider whether the officers had probable cause to arrest defendant for DUI. “Probable cause exists when the facts known to the arresting officer would persuade someone of ‘reasonable caution’ that the person to be arrested has committed a crime. [Citation.] ‘[P]robable cause is a fluid concept—turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts . . . .’ (Illinois v. Gates (1983) 462 U.S. 213, 232 [76 L.Ed.2d 527, 103 S.Ct. 2317].) It is incapable of precise definition. (Maryland v. Pringle (2003) 540 U.S. 366, 371 [157 L.Ed.2d 769, 124 S.Ct. 795].) ‘ “The substance of all the definitions of probable cause is a reasonable ground for belief of guilt,” ’ and that belief must be ‘particularized with respect to the person to be . . . seized.’ (Ibid.)” (People v. Celis, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 673.)
That standard was satisfied here. Although Madelene Orvos did not see defendant drinking, she did see him have difficulty walking, toss an empty *819vodka bottle out of the Bronco, and pass out again in the vehicle. When he woke up, he drove erratically and too fast. He also ran red lights and stop signs. As defendant concedes, the record fully supported Orvos’s belief, which she communicated to the police, that the driver of the Bronco was intoxicated. Orvos’s report thus established probable cause to justify a warrantless arrest of the Bronco’s driver. (Veh. Code, § 40300.5; People v. Schofield (2001) 90 Cal.App.4th 968, 972-975 [109 Cal.Rptr.2d 429]; see generally People v. Smith (1976) 17 Cal.3d 845, 852 [132 Cal.Rptr. 397, 553 P.2d 557] [citizen-informant who has personally observed the commission of a crime “is presumptively reliable”].)
The officers also had ample justification for suspecting that defendant had been the driver of the Bronco. The registered owner of the vehicle lived at 3610 San Jose Lane. A Bronco was parked in front of that residence, and Orvos confirmed that this was the vehicle she had just been following. Officer Gutierrez touched the Bronco’s hood and concluded that it had been driven very recently. The officers went to the door and inquired who had been driving the Bronco. Slavka Kovarick said that the Bronco belonged to Daniel and that she “was going to call Daniel out” to speak to them. Kovarick went into the bedroom immediately to the left of the front door and came out a short time later to say she could not wake Daniel up. Shortly thereafter, Officer Dejohn heard quiet voices coming from down the hall and then saw defendant, a tall White male, approximately 45 years old and shirtless, walk out the back door. At Dejohn’s invitation, defendant walked back into the house and approached the entryway by exiting through the bedroom door immediately to the left of the front door. He was staggering and swaying, slurring his speech, and smelled of alcohol. His appearance and demeanor matched the description of the driver provided by Orvos. He also had walked into and out of the bedroom that belonged to Daniel. The officers, having reasonable grounds for believing that defendant was Daniel and that Daniel was the driver, thus had probable cause to arrest him for DUI.
Defendant claims probable cause was nonetheless lacking because the description Orvos had provided was too general to justify suspicion of any individual person. He cites People v. Curtis (1969) 70 Cal.2d 347 [74 Cal.Rptr. 713, 450 P.2d 33], in which a “cursory description” of the suspect’s race, color of clothing, and presence in the neighborhood where a prowler had been reported was deemed sufficient to justify a detention but not an arrest (id. at p. 350), and on People v. Mickelson (1963) 59 Cal.2d 448 [30 Cal.Rptr. 18, 380 P.2d 658], in which the suspect’s description as a fairly tall White man of large build with dark hair and a red sweater likewise failed to justify the arrest of a man matching that description who was merely in the “neighborhood” where a robbery had occurred more than 20 minutes earlier and was “driving toward the scene of the crime, not away from it.” (Id. at pp. 450, 454.) But we have in this case much more than a vague description *820of a suspect that happens to be matched by someone in the general neighborhood where a crime occurred. The Bronco was traced to a particular residence by its registration as well as by Orvos’s visual identification and the fact the engine was still warm. Kovarick told the officers that Daniel, the owner of the Bronco, was indeed home and that she would tell him to come to the door. Only then did a man matching Orvos’s description attempt to flee from the house, although he eventually came to the door—after passing through Daniel’s bedroom. When the man arrived at the front door, the officers immediately could tell that he was intoxicated. These additional facts soundly distinguish Curtis and Mickelson. (People v. Schader (1965) 62 Cal.2d 716, 724 [44 Cal.Rptr. 193, 401 P.2d 665]; In re Louis F. (1978) 85 Cal.App.3d 611, 616 [149 Cal.Rptr. 642] [“Curtis and Mickelson should not be understood as standing for the proposition identification data furnished to a police officer can never alone be sufficient to justify a warrantless arrest unless there could not have been anyone other than the person arrested who could have fit the description. Rather, the question is one of degree. And when identification information of the kind here present is buttressed by additional probative evidence of complicity, it cannot be maintained probable cause was lacking”].)
Defendant also errs in supposing that the officers’ lack of certainty defendant was the driver precludes a finding of probable cause. “ ‘[Sufficient probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment.’ ” (Maryland v. Garrison (1987) 480 U.S. 79, 87 [94 L.Ed.2d 72, 107 S.Ct. 1013].)
B. Did Exigent Circumstances Justify a Warrantless Entry to Effect the Arrest?
The imminent destruction of evidence is an exigent circumstance justifying a warrantless entry into a residence to effect an arrest. (People v. Celis, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 676.) The People contend that the body’s metabolization of alcohol qualified as the imminent destruction of evidence justifying a warrantless entry. Defendant disagrees, relying largely on Welsh.
Welsh held that the need to ascertain a suspect’s blood-alcohol level did not justify a warrantless entry into a residence to effect an arrest for driving under the influence in Wisconsin. (Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at pp. 753-754.) Welsh did not dispute the evanescent character of evidence of intoxication. Rather, the high court invalidated the arrest because “an important factor to be considered when determining whether any exigency exists is the gravity of the underlying offense for which the arrest is being made.” (Id. at p. 753; see also Brigham City v. Stuart (2006) 547 U.S._,_[164 L.Ed.2d 650, 659, 126 S.Ct. 1943].) “[T]he best indication of the State’s interest in precipitating *821an arrest,” the court explained, is the classification of the offense and the possible punishment, which “can be easily identified both by the courts and by officers faced with a decision to arrest.” (Welsh, supra, at p. 754.)
Defendant, like the Court of Appeal here, reasons that DUI is likewise a minor offense in California and, under Welsh, cannot justify a warrantless entry to effect an arrest. We disagree. Wisconsin has chosen to classify a first offense for DUI as a noncriminal, civil forfeiture offense for which no imprisonment is possible. (Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at p. 754, citing Wis. Stat. § 346.65(2) (1975).) The issue thus presented in Welsh, as the high court explicitly stated, was whether “the Fourth Amendment prohibits the police from making a warrantless night entry of a person’s home in order to arrest him for a nonjailable traffic offense.” (Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at p. 742, italics added.) California, by contrast, classifies a first offense for driving under the influence as a criminal act that is punishable by no more than six months and no less than 96 hours in jail. (Veh. Code, § 23536, subd. (a).) The possibility of imprisonment distinguishes DUI in California from DUI in Wisconsin.
Other factors confirm that, in California, driving under the influence is not an “extremely minor” offense within the meaning of Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at page 753. When the Legislature amended Vehicle Code section 40300.5 to allow warrantless arrests for this misdemeanor offense not committed in the presence of the officer, it found and declared “that driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs continues to pose a substantial danger to public health and safety, injuring over 65,000 people per year and killing an additional 2,400. Given the severity of the conduct involved, the exception in Section 40300.5 of the Vehicle Code from the general requirements of Section 836 of the Penal Code should be expanded to cover other instances in which the officer has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested had been driving while under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or both.” (Stats. 1984, ch. 722, § 2, pp. 2646-2647; see also People v. Schofield, supra, 90 Cal.App.4th at p. 973 [“The Legislature has recognized that driving under the influence is widespread and serious with potential for catastrophic consequences”].) This court, too, has recognized file “monstrous proportions of the problem” as well as “the horrific risk posed by those who drink and drive” (Burg v. Municipal Court (1983) 35 Cal.3d 257, 262 [198 Cal.Rptr. 145, 673 P.2d 732]) and has declared its “resolve to support ‘all possible means of deterring persons from driving automobiles after drinking.’ ” (Peterson v. Superior Court (1982) 31 Cal.3d 147, 155 [181 Cal.Rptr. 784, 642 P.2d 1305].) We therefore believe Welsh was limited to Wisconsin’s “amazing” decision to classify DUI as a civil nonjailable offense (Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at p. 755 (conc. opn. of Blackmun, J.)) and not as a categorical bar on warrantless arrests in the home for DUI in the vast majority of states that, like California, classify it as a crime with the possibility of imprisonment. *822(People v. Hampton, supra, 164 Cal.App.3d 27, 34; see also Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at p. 761 (dis. opn. of White, J.) [“a bright-line distinction between felonies and misdemeanors is untenable”; “the Court—wisely in my view— does not adopt such an approach”].)
Illinois v. McArthur (2001) 531 U.S. 326 [148 L.Ed.2d 838, 121 S.Ct. 946] (McArthur), which construed the scope of exigent circumstances in the related circumstance of preventing a suspect from entering his own home, provides additional support for our understanding of Welsh. In McArthur, the police suspected that marijuana had been hidden underneath the couch of the trailer where McArthur was living. The police informed McArthur of their suspicions and asked for permission to search the trailer, which McArthur denied. While one officer went to get a search warrant, McArthur was told he could not reenter the trailer unless an officer accompanied him. McArthur then reentered the trailer two or three times, and each time an officer stood just inside the door to observe what McArthur did. About two hours later, an officer returned with the warrant and found a small amount of marijuana in the trailer. (McArthur, supra, 531 U.S. at p. 329.) Relying on Welsh, McArthur argued that misdemeanor possession of marijuana, which was punishable in Illinois by up to 30 days in jail, was too minor an offense to justify the warrantless restraint he had suffered. (McArthur, at pp. 335-336.) The high court disagreed, reiterating that “ ‘the penalty that may attach to any particular offense seems to provide the clearest and most consistent indication of the State’s interest in arresting individuals suspected of committing that offense’ ” (id. at p. 336, quoting Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at p. 754, fn. 14.) and finding “significant distinctions” between “crimes that were ‘jailable,’ not ‘nonjailable.’ ” (McArthur, at p. 336; see also id. at p. 337 (conc. opn. of Souter, J.) [observing that the risk of destruction of evidence of the misdemeanor would have justified a warrantless entry into the trailer].)
A substantial majority of our sister jurisdictions have limited Welsh’ s holding to nonjailable offenses and have thereby rejected defendant’s extension of its rule to misdemeanor offenses where imprisonment is a potential penalty. (Mendez v. People (Colo. 1999) 986 P.2d 275, 283 [distinguishing Welsh as involving “a minor, civil, nonjailable offense”]; Dolan v. Salinas (Conn.Super.Ct. 1999) 1999 Conn. Super. Lexis 1988, *13 [“Unlike the State of Wisconsin, Connecticut provides for incarceration on a first conviction” for DUI]; Dyer v. State (Fla.Dist.Ct.App. 1996) 680 So.2d 612, 613 [a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail is “classified as a much more serious offense than in Welsh”]; Threatt v. State (1999) 240 Ga.App. 592 [524 S.E.2d 276, 280] (Threatt) [distinguishing Welsh because DUI, which is punishable by imprisonment of 10 days to 12 months, is “sufficiently serious criminal activity to justify an officer’s warrantless, nonconsensual entry into a suspect’s home to arrest the suspect”]; People v. Lagle (1990) 200 Ill.App.3d 948 [146 Ill.Dec. 551, 558 N.E.2d 514, 519] [distinguishing Welsh because *823DUI, a misdemeanor, is “considered a serious offense in Illinois”]; State v. Legg (Iowa 2001) 633 N.W.2d 763, 773 [distinguishing Welsh because DUI, which is punishable by two days to one year in jail, is a “serious misdemeanor”]; State v. Paul (Minn. 1996) 548 N.W.2d 260, 267 [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is a misdemeanor and the legislature had authorized warrantless arrests for this offense when it occurs outside the officer’s presence]; City of Kirksville v. Guffey (Mo.Ct.App. 1987) 740 S.W.2d 227, 229 [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is punishable by up to six months in jail]; State v. Ellinger (1986) 223 Mont. 349 [725 P.2d 1201, 1204] [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is a criminal offense with the possibility of imprisonment]; State v. Nikola (2003) 359 N.J. Super. 573 [821 A.2d 110, 118] [distinguishing Welsh because “in this State a charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol may subject an offender to a jail term of up to thirty days even for a first offense”]; People v. Odenweller (App.Div. 1988) 137 A.D.2d 15 [527 N.Y.S.2d 127, 129] [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is punishable by up to one year in jail]; Beachwood v. Sims (1994) 98 OhioApp.3d 9 [647 N.E.2d 821, 825] [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is a misdemeanor punishable by a minimum term of three days in jail]; State v. Roberts (1985) 75 Or. App. 292 [706 P.2d 564, 566] [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail]; Beaver v. State (Tex.Crim.App. 2003) 106 S.W.3d 243, 248 [distinguishing Welsh “from cases, such as this one, where the offense is ‘jailable’ ”]; City of Orem v. Henrie (Utah Ct.App. 1994) 868 P.2d 1384, 1392 [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment]; Cherry v. Com. (2004) 44 Va.App. 347 [605 S.E.2d 297, 307] [“if any bright line exists for warrantless entries into the home, it should be drawn between jailable and nonjailable offenses rather than between felonies and misdemeanors”]; State v. Griffith (1991) 61 Wn.App. 35 [808 P.2d 1171, 1176 & fn. 7] [distinguishing Welsh as a case involving a noncriminal, civil forfeiture offense without possible imprisonment]; Goines v. James (1993) 189 W.Va. 634 [433 S.E.2d 572, 577-578] [distinguishing Welsh because DUI is a serious traffic offense punishable by up to six months in jail]; State v. Hughes (2000) 2000 WI 24 [607 N.W.2d 621, 631] [distinguishing Welsh because the misdemeanor offense was punishable by up to six months in jail]; Rideout v. State (2005) 2005 WY 141 [122 P.3d 201, 210] [“The unmistakable implication of the discussion in McArthur is that the distinction drawn by the Court in Welsh between minor offenses that do not justify a warrantless entry into a residence and those offenses that do is predicated upon whether the subject offense carries a potential jail term”]; accord, Joyce v. Town of Tewksbury, Mass. (1st Cir. 1997) 112 F.3d 19, 22 (en banc) [“the fact that Massachusetts classifies the alleged violation here as a misdemeanor does not reduce it to a ‘minor offense’ ” within the meaning of Welsh].)
*824Against this impressive array of authority, we have found only three courts that, like the Court of Appeal below, have extended Welsh to misdemeanors carrying a possibility of imprisonment. In Patzner v. Burkett (8th Cir. 1985) 779 F.2d 1363, the Eighth Circuit asserted, without much analysis, that the punishment for DUI in North Dakota—a minimum sentence of a $100 fine or three days in jail—was only a “minor difference in penalty” and thus was “not sufficient to support a result different from that reached in Welsh,” inasmuch as the state had since amended its statute to eliminate the possibility of imprisonment for first-time offenders. (Patzner, supra, 779 F.2d at pp. 1368-1369 & fn. 6.) In State v. Flegel (S.D. 1992) 485 N.W.2d 210, the South Dakota Supreme Court made the remarkable assertion that the misdemeanor penalties for first-offense DUI, which ranged up to one year in jail, were “similar” to those attaching to the nonjailable traffic offense in Welsh and the misdemeanor penalties in Patzner. (Flegel, supra, 485 N.W.2d at p. 215.) And in Norris v. State (1999) 338 Ark. 397 [993 S.W.2d 918], the Arkansas Supreme Court held that DUI, which was punishable by up to one year in jail, was “relatively minor” when compared to criminal offenses involving violence or the threat of violence. (Id. at p. 923; but see 3 LaFave, Search and Seizure (4th ed. 2004) § 6.1(f), p. 316, fn. 211 [criticizing Norris].)
We do not find these decisions persuasive. First of all, they ignore Welsh itself, which cautions that the critical factor is not the nature of the crime but “the penalty that may attach to any particular offense.” (Welsh, 466 U.S. at p. 754, fn. 14; see also Colb, The Qualitative Dimension of Fourth Amendment “Reasonableness” (1998) 98 Colum. L.Rev. 1642, 1683 [“If Wisconsin were unhappy with the Court’s decision, it could, therefore, nullify it prospectively by simply changing (legislatively) the status of driving while intoxicated from a civil violation to a criminal offense”].) Indeed, they all predate McArthur, which clarified that the significant distinction for Fourth Amendment purposes in an analogous context is whether the crimes were “ ‘jailable’ ” or “ ‘nonjailable.’ ” (McArthur, supra, 531 U.S. at p. 336.) Moreover, none of these cases acknowledges the substantial weight of authority limiting Welsh to nonjailable offenses—or even cites a single contrary case. Finally, a bright-line rule limiting warrantless entries to felonies “would send a message to the ‘bad man’ who drinks and drives that a hot pursuit or arrest set in motion can be thwarted by beating the police to one’s door. The Fourth Amendment simply cannot be stretched nor can public safety be ensured by a bright-line felony rule which would encourage drunk drivers to elude the police by racing through the streets to the sanctuary of their houses in order to ‘freeze’ a hot pursuit or to otherwise evade a lawful arrest.” (State v. Paul, supra, 548 N.W.2d at p. 268.)
If, as we have concluded, a finding of exigent circumstances in DUI cases is not categorically precluded by Welsh, we must next consider whether *825exigent circumstances justified the warrantless entry in this particular case. The People rely on the exception to the warrant requirement for the imminent destruction of evidence. They point out (1) that defendant’s blood-alcohol level would have diminished while the police sought a warrant as the body metabolized the alcohol, and (2) that defendant could have masked his blood-alcohol level while the police sought a warrant by ingesting more alcohol. The People’s concerns are well founded.
It is beyond dispute that “the percentage of alcohol in the blood begins to diminish shortly after drinking stops, as the body functions to eliminate it from the system.” (Schmerber v. California (1966) 384 U.S. 757, 770 [16 L.Ed.2d 908, 86 S.Ct. 1826].) Because the “delay necessary to procure a warrant . . . may result in the destruction of valuable evidence,” “blood and breath samples taken to measure whether these substances were in the bloodstream when a triggering event occurred must be obtained as soon as possible.” (Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives’ Assn. (1989) 489 U.S. 602, 623 [103 L.Ed.2d 639, 109 S.Ct. 1402].) Neither defendant nor the dissenting opinion here offers any reason why the dissipation of blood-alcohol evidence may be deemed to threaten the imminent destruction of evidence in Schmerber and in Skinner but not in this case. Nor does defendant offer any authority for his assertion at oral argument that the exigent circumstance relating to the imminent destruction of evidence encompasses only that evidence which qualifies as contraband or as an instrumentality of a crime. To the contrary, most courts have concluded that the dissipation of blood-alcohol evidence “may constitute an exigent circumstance under the facts of a particular case.” (City of Orem v. Henrie, supra, 868 P.2d at p. 1389; accord, Threatt, supra, 524 S.E.2d at p. 281, fn. 1 [“when an officer has probable cause to arrest for the offense of DUI, the need to prevent destruction of evidence (which may occur by the dissipation of alcohol from a DUI suspect’s blood while a warrant is obtained) may constitute an exigent circumstance which could justify a nonconsensual, warrantless entry into the suspect’s home to arrest the suspect”]; State v. Komoto (1985) 40 Wn.App. 200 [697 P.2d 1025, 1033] [“This proposition is generally accepted by federal and state courts”]; State v. Bohling (1993) 173 Wis.2d 529 [494 N.W.2d 399, 404-405] [citing cases]; U.S. v. Reid (4th Cir. 1991) 929 F.2d 990, 993-994.)1
*826Defendant contends that no exigency existed because there is a rebuttable presumption that a driver had a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or more at the time of driving if the person had a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or more in a chemical test performed “within three hours after the driving.” (Veh. Code, § 23152, subd. (b).) Defendant misapprehends the significance of this provision, which is not a presumption at all, but only a permissive inference. (Judicial Council of Cal., Jury Instns. (2006) Bench Note to CALCR1M No. 2111, p. 149; accord, Use Note to CALJIC No. 12.61.1 (Jan. 2005 ed.) p. 845.) That the jury may, but is not required to, conclude that defendant’s blood-alcohol level was in excess of legal limits based on a test taken within three hours of the driving does not eviscerate the People’s interest in securing a blood test as soon as possible. (State v. Bohling, supra, 494 N.W.2d at p. 405; City of Orem v. Henrie, supra, 868 P.2d at p. 1393, fn. 10 [such a limitation “evinces the Legislature’s intent to promote the rapid attainment of chemical tests for alcohol content”].)
We are likewise unpersuaded by defendant’s claim that any exigency is eliminated because of the possibility an expert could testify about the defendant’s blood-alcohol level at an earlier point “by extrapolating backward from the later-taken results.” As courts have recognized, “such extrapolations can be speculative.” (State v. Bohling, supra, 494 N.W.2d at p. 405.) “[T]here are numerous variables such as weight, or time and content of last meal which may affect the rate at which the alcohol dissipates.” (Carleton v. Superior Court (1985) 170 Cal.App.3d 1182, 1185 [216 Cal.Rptr. 890]; see also Bennett v. Coffman (1987) 178 W.Va. 500 [361 S.E.2d 465, 469] [degree of physical exertion can affect body’s metabolism of alcohol].)2
In any event, none of defendant’s arguments is responsive to the corruption of evidence that occurs when the suspect takes advantage of any delay to ingest more alcohol—or to claim to have done so—or when the suspect evades police capture until he or she is no longer intoxicated. Numerous courts have recognized this possibility as an additional reason supporting a finding of exigent circumstances in DUI cases. (Welsh, supra, 466 U.S. at *827p. 763 (dis. opn. of White, J.); State v. Lovig (Iowa 2004) 675 N.W.2d 557, 566 & fn. 2; State v. Legg, supra, 633 N.W.2d at pp. 772-773; State v. Seamans, (Me.Super.Ct., Aug. 2, 2005, No. CR-04-770) 2005 Me.Super. Lexis 105, *11, fn. 3; State v. Paul, supra, 548 N.W.2d at p. 267; City of Kirksville v. Guffey, supra, 740 S.W.2d at p. 229; People v. Odenweller, supra, 527 N.Y.S.2d at p. 129; Stark v. N. Y. State Dept. of Motor Vehicles (App.Div. 1984) 104 A.D.2d 194 [483 N.Y.S.2d 824, 826-827], affd. (1985) 65 N.Y.2d 720 [492 N.Y.S.2d 8, 9, 481 N.E.2d 548]; City of Orem v. Henrie, supra, 868 P.2d at p. 1393; State v. Komoto, supra, 697 P.2d at p. 1033.) In this case, the corruption of evidence was not merely a theoretical possibility. The officers had good reason to believe that defendant, who had attempted to flee out the back door upon learning of their presence, would escape again or otherwise act to conceal his intoxication if given the opportunity. (See People v. Murphy (2005) 37 Cal.4th 490, 500 [36 Cal.Rptr.3d 125, 123 P.3d 155].) Time was of the essence here.
In holding that exigent circumstances justified the warrantless entry here, we need not decide—and do not hold—that the police may enter a home without a warrant to effect an arrest of a DUI suspect in every case. We hold merely that the police conduct here, taking into account all of the circumstances, was reasonable—with reasonableness measured as “ ‘a balance between the public interest and the individual’s right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law officers.’ ” (Pennsylvania v. Mimms (1977) 434 U.S. 106, 109 [54 L.Ed.2d 331, 98 S.Ct. 330]; accord, People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal.3d 263, 276 [127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333] [“There is no ready litmus test for determining whether such circumstances exist, and in each case the claim of an extraordinary situation must be measured by the facts known to the officers”].)
The state’s interest in effecting an arrest here was substantial. There was strong evidence that defendant had committed the dangerous act of DUI, a jailable offense. Officer Dejohn feared, however, the evidence of that crime was in imminent danger of destruction. His suspicions were justified. Slavka Kovarick had told the police, alternately, that defendant would be coming to the door soon, and that he was asleep and could not be woken up, but he was in fact neither sleeping nor coming to the door. Instead, he spoke quietly in the hall with Kovarick and then walked away from the officers into the backyard. The police were able to see defendant leave the house only because the front door was open, and defendant returned to the house only after Officer Dejohn made eye contact with him and motioned for him to come back in. Having attempted to flee once, defendant was at risk of doing so again if he was not promptly taken into custody. Had he escaped, the evidence of his crime would have dissipated. Even if he had been prevented from escaping, he had already demonstrated plainly his desire to evade police investigation and could have corrupted the evidence simply by resuming *828drinking. The police thus had ample cause to believe defendant was inside the house and that the evidence was at risk of imminent destmction, as the superior court found. (Cf. Vale v. Louisiana (1970) 399 U.S. 30, 34-35 [26 L.Ed.2d 409, 90 S.Ct. 1969] [no exigency existed where the officers had no basis for suspecting anyone was inside the house or about to destroy the narcotics].)
The Court of Appeal emphasized in particular that the police had not conducted a hot pursuit in that the pursuit was initiated by a citizen and the police did not observe defendant driving or entering the house. Even if the definition of hot pursuit were to exclude the situation here (but see People v. Escudero (1979) 23 Cal.3d 800, 810 [153 Cal.Rptr. 825, 592 P.2d 312] [“it is not necessary that the suspect be kept physically in view at all times”]), it is clear that defendant had arrived at the house only minutes before the police. The police thus had reasonable cause to believe the evidence of defendant’s intoxication would be fresh at the time of his arrest.
The intrusion on defendant’s privacy, by contrast, was a diminished one. Kovarick had left the front door wide open during the entire encounter. This not only rendered a forcible entry unnecessary, but it also exposed to public view the very area where the arrest would later occur. (Cf. U.S. v. Gori (2d Cir. 2000) 230 F.3d 44, 53 [“Once the apartment was opened to public view by the defendants in response to the knock of an invitee, there was no expectation of privacy as to what could be seen from the hall”]; U.S. v. Vaneaton (9th Cir. 1995) 49 F.3d 1423, 1427.) Moreover, Officer Dejohn entered only a few feet beyond the threshold, and Officer Gutierrez followed only when it became apparent that his assistance was necessary to overcome defendant’s resistance. Neither conducted a search of the residence. In short, the state’s intrusion into the home was the minimum necessary to effect the arrest and extended only to areas already exposed to public view. Under these circumstances, it was reasonable for the police to enter the home without a warrant in order to arrest defendant and thereby prevent the imminent destruction of evidence of his crime.3
In light of our holding, we find it unnecessary to address the People’s additional argument that even if the warrantless entry had violated the Fourth Amendment, the exclusionary rule would not extend to the officers’ observations of defendant outside the house, any statements defendant made prior to the entry or after defendant was removed from the house, or the results of his blood-alcohol test. (See New York v. Harris, supra, 495 U.S. at p. 19; People v. Marquez (1992) 1 Cal.4th 553, 569 [3 Cal.Rptr.2d 710, 822 P.2d 418].)
*829Disposition
The judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed.
George, C. J., Kennard, J., Chin, J., Moreno, J., and Corrigan, J., concurred.

 The dissent concedes that the dissipation of blood-alcohol evidence may constitute an exigent circumstance to justify a warrantless entry to effect an arrest, but would limit such arrests to crimes “far more serious than mere driving under the influence.” (Dis. opn., post, at p. 833.) The text of the Fourth Amendment, however, offers no basis for distinguishing between DUI, which is a serious and jailable offense in California (see ante, at pp. 821-822), and the crimes alleged in Henrie and Komoto, nor does the dissent point to any case law to support such a distinction. Indeed, inasmuch as the dissent concedes that the nonjailable offense in Welsh is distinguishable from the jailable offense in this case (dis. opn., post, at p. 830), the line the dissent would draw between this case and Henrie or Komoto remains undefined.

 Defendant also argues that a person suspected of DUI may refuse to submit to chemical testing and accept the specified punishment, rendering the blood-alcohol evidence superfluous. Defendant once again misapprehends the statutory scheme. A person who drives a motor vehicle “is deemed to have given his or her consent to chemical testing” of his or her blood, breath, or urine for the purpose of determining the alcohol or drug content of his or her blood (Veh. Code, § 23612, subds. (a)(1)(A) & (B), (d)(2)). “It is [thus] firmly established that a drunken driver has no right to resist or refuse such a test.” (Bush v. Bright (1968) 264 Cal.App.2d 788, 792 [71 Cal.Rptr. 123].) Moreover, the possibility of sanctions under Vehicle Code section 13353 for the driver’s refusal to submit to chemical tests does not preclude the People from also obtaining a blood sample without any further approval, based on the consent any driver has given under section 23612, and punishing the driver for the criminal act of driving under the influence. (Covington v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1980) 102 Cal.App.3d 54, 60 [162 Cal.Rptr. 150]; People v. Fite (1968) 267 Cal.App.2d 685, 690-691.)

 To the extent dictum in People v. Schofield, supra, 90 Cal.App.4th at pages 970 and 975, is inconsistent with the views expressed herein, it is disapproved.