Court Opinion

ID: 9773024
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:35:18.70959+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:49.751753
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
dissenting.
This Court granted the appellant’s petition for discretionary review to review two of the three grounds of review he presented therein, namely: “(1) The trial court and the First Court of Appeals erred in not suppressing appellant’s intoxilyzer breath test result as it was derived in violation of his right to assistance of counsel,” and “(2) The trial court and the First Court of Appeals erred in not suppressing appellant’s intoxilyzer breath test result as it was derived after appellant requested counsel and in violation of the prophylactic safeguard established by Miranda v. Arizona, [384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) ], and Edwards v. Arizona, [451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981)], requiring police to cease all interrogation where a person in custody requests counsel.” (My emphasis.)
I dissent first to footnote 2 of the majority opinion, which states the following: “Our grant of review was strictly limited to the application of Miranda v. Arizona, supra, and Edwards v. Arizona, supra, to the instant case.” (My emphasis.) Our grant of review did no such thing.
After reading the majority opinion, it appears to me that the new rule is that after this Court has granted a petition for discretionary review, it is now necessary for the appealing party to prepare for this Court a proposed opinion, and this Court will be bound by the four comers doctrine in deciding whether to approve or disapprove the opinion. I must confess: I am unfamiliar with any such doctrine. In light of what this Court has been doing of late, see post, it would appear that after granting a petition for discretionary review, we should now take a vote on whether a majority of this Court believes that the opinion by the court of appeals could be better written and, if a majority of this Court decides it could, then we simply remand the cause back to the court of appeals for it to rewrite its opinion. That is basically what is happening today.
Today, as members of law enforcement, the Bench and Bar of this State anxiously await our decision on whether an accused, who has been arrested for driving while intoxicated, has a limited statutory or constitutional right to counsel before deciding whether to submit to an intoxilyzer test, but as we erroneously did on April 9, 1986, when we remanded the cause of Forte v. State, 707 S.W. 89 (Tex.Cr.App., 1986), to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals, we once again pussyfoot around by remanding this cause to the Houston First Court of Appeals, in order for it to do what it has already done, implicitly if not expressly. This is neither judicial efficiency nor judicial economy at its best.
Come on Brethren, let’s quit beating around the bush and decide the issue, whether a person arrested for driving while intoxicated has either a constitutional or statutory limited right to counsel. Just because this Court goofed just a couple of *508days ago in Forte v. State, supra, by remanding that cause to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals for that court to perform a useless task, is no justification why this Court should continue to goof.
The record reflects that Dennis Michael McCambridge, hereinafter referred to as the appellant, appealed the misdemeanor driving while intoxicated conviction he had sustained in the trial court to the Houston First Court of Appeals, which court affirmed his conviction. See McCambridge v. State, 698 S.W.2d 390 (Tex.App. — Houston [1st] 1985).
On direct appeal to the Houston First Court of Appeals, the appellant, relying primarily upon Forte v. State, supra, as case authority, contended that after he had invoked his right to counsel, and after he had received the Miranda warnings, he had the limited right to the assistance of counsel before deciding whether or not to take the intoxilyzer test. He also argued that because he was denied his right to the assistance of counsel the trial judge should have suppressed not only the audio portion of the video tape, which he did, but should have also suppressed the result of the breath test that he took, which he didn’t.
The Houston First Court of Appeals, notwithstanding that the appellant relied primarily upon Forte, supra, as authority for his contentions, but without discussing Forte, supra, totally rejected what the Fort Worth Court of Appeals had held in Forte, supra, that an accused arrested for driving while intoxicated has the limited right to the assistance of counsel before deciding whether to take the intoxilyzer test. The Houston Court of Appeals held: “Because the appellant’s refusal to take the breath test was not constitutionally protected (under the Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution), and because this was not a critical stage of the prosecution against the appellant, we hold that he was not entitled to consult an attorney before deciding whether to refuse to take the breath test.” (My emphasis.)
I will first address what both this Court and the Fort Worth Court of Appeals stated in Forte v. State, supra.
In our Forte, supra, this Court stated the following: “Although the opinion of the Court of Appeals does not specifically mention a particular federal or state constitutional provision, given its reliance upon United States v. Wade, supra, it is clear that the decision was upon the Sixth Amendment.” This is truly a misreading of that court’s opinion.
On motion for rehearing, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals, see Forte v. State, 686 S.W.2d 744 (Tex.App. — Ft. Worth 1985), clearly pointed out that it was relying upon Prideaux v. State of Minnesota, Department of Public Safety, 310 Minn. 405, 247 N.W.2d 385 (Minn.1976), not only for guidance but also for authority. Prideaux, supra, had interpreted a statute similar to the one in existence in Texas at the time that the appellant was arrested, but which was no longer in existence in Minnesota at the time the Fort Worth Court of Appeals handed down its opinion on rehearing. See Nyflot v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 369 N.W.2d 512 (Minn.1985). Note what the court of appeals expressly stated in its opinion on rehearing: “Adopting the language of that opinion (Prideaux, supra) we hold that any person who is required to submit to a chemical test of the alcohol content of his blood, breath, or urine shall have the right to consult with a lawyer of his own choosing before making that decision, provided that such consultation does not unreasonably delay the administration of the test.” (754). Thus, the opinion by the court of appeals, just like Prideaux, supra, was not even decided on Federal or State constitutional grounds, but, instead, was decided upon State statutory grounds. The court used for guidance and authority an opinion from the Minnesota Supreme Court that had been expressly overruled by that court because of a tremendous change that had been made in the interval by the Minnesota Legislature. However, Prideaux, supra, was in point because of the way the Minnesota laws were then worded and the way Texas laws were worded at *509the time the defendant Forte had been arrested.
This Court, in Forte, supra, erroneously stated the following: “Although the Court of Appeals did not explicitly state that it was only addressing a particular federal constitutional provision, given the court’s reliance on the above Supreme Court opinions, it is clear that the decision to affirm was grounded upon appellant’s argument that he had a Sixth Amendment right to counsel.”
In Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983), the Supreme Court expressly stated the following: “When ... the adequacy and independence of any possible state law grounds is ... clear from the face of the opinion, we will accept as the most reasonable explanation that the state court decided the case the way it did ...” We should adhere to this statement in interpreting opinions by courts of appeals.
Therefore, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals’ opinion of Forte v. State, supra, should be clear to even the most myopic reader on what basis that court decided the limited right to counsel issue. Likewise, the only thing that the Houston First Court of Appeals forgot to do in its opinion was to put therein, in big, bold letters, the fact that it was relying upon decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States — not only for guidance but for authority, in stating and holding what it did. It either forgot to do that or it simply forgot to turn on the lights, so that some members of this Court could see what it had stated and held.
By taking the action that a majority of this Court votes to take today, to remand this cause to the Houston Court of Appeals, just as it took just a few days ago, to remand Forte, supra, to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals, we give meaning, not to the fact that criminal convictions must eventually become final, but to the fact that in Texas appeals of criminal convictions can sometimes closely resemble a ping pong game.
The Houston First Court of Appeals expressly stated in its opinion the following: “In support of this contention (that his motion to suppress should have been granted, because he was deprived of his right to assistance of counsel), appellant cites the recent decision of Forte v. State, 686 S.W.2d 744 (Tex.App. — Fort Worth 1985) ...” (P. 392 of opinion.) Thereafter, it stated and held the following: “We decline to follow the majority holding in Forte v. State ...”
Therefore, our decision today should be, not to remand this cause to the Houston Court of Appeals, but, instead, to withdraw our opinion in Forte, supra, and decide the issue, whether the appellant had the limited right to counsel before deciding whether or not to take the breath test.
The facts of this cause reflect that after being arrested for driving while intoxicated, in response to the appellant’s request for counsel, the arresting officers told him that he would have to wait until after he got downtown to the station house before he could receive the aid of an attorney. At the station house, contrary to the express provisions of Art. 15.17, V.A.C.C.P., the appellant was not taken to a magistrate, but, instead, was taken to the videotaping room of the police department. The appellant was then administered the Miranda warnings, and was permitted to use a telephone. Because he did not know his Dallas civil attorney’s telephone number, he telephoned his wife and told her to call not only his Dallas attorney but also to telephone a friend of his who was an Assistant District Attorney of Harris County, for the purpose of being referred to a local criminal defense attorney. Thereafter, the appellant again tried to telephone his wife, but this time the line was busy. The appellant was never successful in making contact with an attorney while he was at the station house.
The record clearly reflects that at least nine times while in the videotaping room the appellant requested the assistance of counsel, but his request fell on deaf ears. After his tenth request for the assistance *510of counsel, the appellant was removed from the videotaping room to the hallway outside of the room, where police officers continued to ask him to submit to a breath test. Eight more times he refused. Finally, after his eighteenth request for the assistance of counsel was not honored, and probably out of desperation and believing that continued refusals would not deter the police officers from their continuing harassment to get him to take the test, as well as by now believing what the officers were telling him, i.e., that an attorney was going to screw up everything that might be done, that he would automatically be found guilty, that he would lose his driver’s license, that he would go to jail, and that possibly he would lose his job, he discontinued making demands for counsel and took the intoxilyzer test.
Under our statutory law, the mere refusal to take the breath test carries both civil and criminal penalties. For example, on the criminal side, a defendant’s refusal to take the test is now admissible as evidence against him as an inference of guilt in a subsequent criminal prosecution; on the civil side, a refusal to take the test results in an automatic suspension of that person’s driver’s license for ninety days. See Art. 6701?-5, Sections 2(f) and 3(g). Thus, we are not dealing with a simple driver’s license revocation case.
What the court of appeals and the parties have overlooked is the fact that the arrested person is guaranteed by the provisions of Art. 15.17, V.A.C.C.P., and Art. 38.22, Section 3, V.A.C.C.P., to be warned of his right to counsel, and if he requests counsel, under this Court’s decisions, that request must be honored. Furthermore, the Texas Constitution guarantees that an accused shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself, see Art. I, Section 10, Texas Constitution. Also see Sanchez v. State, 707 S.W.2d 575 (Tex.Cr.App., 1986) (Clinton, J., concurring opinion).
This case, like Forte, supra, traly exemplifies the continuing difficulties encountered by the police in seeking to satisfy at the same time the requirements of a Miranda warning and the provisions of the implied consent statute. Simply stated, for law enforcement officials, the two make a bad marriage because they represent contradictory polar interests.
It is unnecessary to decide this case on constitutional grounds. The question really boils down to whether the Legislature of this State intended a blanket denial of the right to counsel under the implied consent statute.
As previously noted, in this State, any person in police custody accused of wrongdoing is entitled to be told that he has the right to consult with an attorney, and, if he requests counsel, his request must be honored. Cf. Dunn v. State, 696 S.W.2d 561 (Tex.Cr.App.1985). However, under the implied consent statute, there is no such right.
Thus, under our law, the State is required to both advise the accused of his right to counsel and at the same time tell him he does not have the right to counsel. How confusing this must be to the accused. (“Didn’t you tell me earlier I could call my lawyer and I don’t have to answer any questions?” “And now you’re saying I can’t have a lawyer and I gotta take the test?” See Latzer, “The High Court vs. High Drivers: A Short Course in Logic,” Vol. 21, No. 1, Criminal Law Bulletin, Jan. — Feb., 1985).
In United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967), the Supreme Court held that when the pretrial investigation reaches a “critical” stage, the right to counsel attaches, and “[T]he accused is guaranteed that he need not stand alone against the State at any stage of the prosecution, formal or informal, in court or out, where counsel’s absence might derogate from the accused’s right to a fair trial.” (My emphasis.)
The majority opinion, as it did in Forte, supra, interprets United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180, 104 S.Ct. 2292, 81 L.Ed.2d 146 (1984), as holding that the “critical” stage can never exist unless and until formal charges have been filed against the accused. The facts in Gouveia, *511supra, reflect that the defendants in that cause, already serving prison sentences, were placed in administrative segregation or detention after a hearing because they were suspected of killing other inmates. They were subsequently formally charged with those killings. They claimed that they had the right to the assistance of counsel while they were in administrative “lock up.” The Supreme Court held that they were not entitled to counsel while they were in administrative segregation and before any adversarial judicial proceedings had been initiated against them, but expressly pointed out that “The narrow issue before the Court of Appeals and before us today is whether the Sixth Amendment requires the appointment of counsel for indigent inmates in respondents’ situation.” 104 S.Ct., at 2296, fn. 1. In so holding, the Court, however, was quick to point out that the defendants had visitation privileges and the opportunity to make unmonitored phone calls to attorneys while in administrative segregation, and that in a pretrial situation where the results of the confrontation “might well settle the accused’s fate and reduce the trial itself to a mere formality,” United States v. Wade, supra, 388 U.S., at 224, 87 S.Ct., at 1930, the right to counsel may exist. 104 S.Ct., at 2298.
Thus, the unqualified statement that this Court made in Forte, supra, that “the Supreme Court concluded (in Gouveia, supra,) that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches only upon or after formal initiation of judicial proceedings”, given the facts and circumstances of Gouveia, supra, is a statement that is a far cry from being one without any qualification, restriction, or limitation. Unquestionably, the majority opinion tries to paint a big wall with a little brush that has little paint in it.
In the majority opinion’s meandering type discussion of Miranda and Edwards, supra, it has overlooked the Supreme Court decision of Berkemer v. Mc Carty, 468 U.S. 420, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984), in which the Court held that “a person subjected to custodial interrogation is entitled to the benefit of the procedural safeguards enunciated in Miranda, regardless of the nature or severity of the offense of which he is suspected or for which he is arrested.” 104 S.Ct., at 3148. The Court further held that “There can be no question that respondent was ‘in custody’ at least as of the moment he was formally placed under arrest and instructed to get into the police car. Because he was not informed of his constitutional rights at that juncture, respondent’s subsequent admissions should not have been used against him.” 104 S.Ct., at 3148. Also see People v. Davie, 96 Misc.2d 890, 410 N.Y.S.2d 222 (1978); Annot., 31 A.L.R.3rd 565 (1970).
In Texas, a defendant’s silence or refusal to submit to a requested chemical test is a tacit or overt expression and communication of the defendant’s thoughts, and thus protected by the self-incrimination clause of the Texas Constitution. Dudley v. State, 548 S.W.2d 706 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).
In this instance, after the appellant, who was then in custody, was informed of his Miranda rights he invoked his right to counsel, but the police refused to honor his request to have counsel assist him. The refusal to comply with his request violated the appellant’s right to counsel under the Texas statutes. All evidence secured thereafter should have been suppressed. Juckett v. Evergreen District Court, 100 Wash.2d 824, 675 P.2d 599 (1984).
It is time for this Court to come to grips with all of the above, and to decide the issues that are now before this Court. Other than to do as was done in this cause, to harass the appellant until he finally agreed to submit to taking the test, police officers who arrest persons for driving while intoxicated are at a loss of just what they should do.
There is a great deal of interplay between the arresting officer giving the accused the Miranda warnings and also giving the accused the implied consent warnings. The two are truly paradoxical. Today, unfortunately, a majority of this Court refuses to decide the important issues that are before us. We do a disservice to our *512men in blue by not today deciding these issues.
I dissent to remanding this cause to the court of appeals. This only reflects dilly dallying around at its best.