Court Opinion

ID: 9734320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:31:56.914093+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:47.907077
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice
with whom GLASS-MAN, J., joins, concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority. I would base that decision, however, upon an issue implicitly reserved in the opinion of the court. Footnote 2 at 937. Defendant Donahue makes no suggestion that Trooper Gallant acted without probable cause or violated any of Donahue’s constitutional rights. Donahue raises the question of whether a technical arrest is a prerequisite to the admissibility of the result of a blood-alcohol test obtained under the implied consent provision of 29 M.R.S.A. § 1312. Because I would answer in the negative, I would not import into section 1312 the technical elements necessary to establish the validity of an arrest for the purpose of prosecuting an escape.
The obvious purpose for including an arrest requirement in section 1312 was to protect drivers from unwarranted demands for blood-alcohol analysis. As we pointed out in State v. Carey, Me., 412 A.2d 1218, 1221 (1980), the legislature’s purpose of obtaining reliable evidence concerning sobriety of drivers was enhanced by extending to police officers the power to arrest on probable cause. I would find these legislative purposes accomplished when an officer has probable cause even though he may not have taken all of the steps necessary to accomplish a technical arrest prior to invoking the implied consent provisions of section 1312. I would not consider an “actual or constructive seizure or detention of the person” to be a prerequisite to the obtaining of consent under that section.