Court Opinion

ID: 9752761
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:33:28.565832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:21.901060
License: Public Domain

*363MONTEMURO, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
While I have no quarrel with the majority’s conclusion as to the first two issues in this case, I cannot agree that breathalyzer results are admissible into evidence. The Vehicle Code, section § 1547(c), cited in support of admissibility, may well be as inclusive as the Majority would have it, but where no violation under the Code has been charged, its provisions, however broad, are inapplicable. The majority seems to be suggesting that guilt may be proven by implication, as “it necessarily follows that an underage drinking violation and conviction implicates the Motor Vehicle Code.” (Majority Opinion at 1339) If this were so, a juvenile too young to have a driver’s license, or one stopped for pedestrian trespassing, and found to be in the same condition as appellant, could be tested by Intoximeter and expect to have the results used against him at trial under the aegis of the Vehicle Code. I do not believe the statute was intended to have such a lengthy reach, and therefore dissent.
Having said so much, I would also find that in the case at hand introduction of the Intoximeter evidence was harmless error, as the testimony of the arresting officer, that he smelled alcohol on appellant’s breath, would, if believed, be enough to support a finding of underage drinking.