Court Opinion

ID: 9853231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:44:48.751935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:43.188462
License: Public Domain

Birdsong, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent from the majority’s finding that we are bound by Perano v. State, 250 Ga. 704, 708 (300 SE2d 668) to hold that under OCGA § 40-6-392 (a), evidence of appellant’s refusal to take a state-administered blood test was inadmissible because the officer failed to read the implied consent warning to him at the precise moment of his arrest.
1. The issue is controlled by OCGA § 40-6-392 (d), not by Perano. The legislature specifically gives the state the right to admit evidence of the “refusal of the defendant to permit a chemical analysis to be made of his blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substance at the time of his arrest.” (Emphasis supplied.) OCGA § 40-6-392 (d).
Perano did not address subsection (d) at all. It did not address admissibility of a defendant’s refusal to take a chemical test per*839formed in accordance with § 40-6-392 (a) (1), that is, a test “performed according to methods approved by the Division of Forensic Sciences of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and by an individual possessing a valid permit issued by the Division of Forensic Sciences for this purpose.” Appellant was deemed to consent to this official chemical test by § 40-5-55 (a), and his refusal to take it is expressly made admissible by subsection (d) of § 40-6-392.
A state-administered chemical test pursuant to § 40-6-392 (a) (1) cannot properly be given at the precise moment of arrest on the roadway. Whatever the legislature meant by requiring that a defendant be advised of his right to an independent test “at the time of his arrest” in § 40-6-392 (a) (4), the reference in subsection (d) to the refusal of the defendant to permit a chemical analysis of his blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substance “to be made at the time of his arrest” (id.), is in another context, and necessarily refers to the time in proximity to his arrest when the State can properly administer the official test under § 40-6-392 (a) (1).
The defendant’s right to an additional test under § 40-6-392 (a) (3) is a right “in addition to” any chemical test administered at the direction of a law enforcement officer. The right arises when he permits a state-administered chemical test to be made under subsection (a) (1); such a test obviously can be administered only after he has been taken to the location where a test described by § 40-6-392 (a) (1) can properly be made. Advising him “at the moment of his arrest on the road” of his right to an additional test would give appellant no benefit, for he has that right only if he permits a chemical test “to be made” (id. at (d)) when it can properly be made.
Therefore, the full context of “the time of his arrest” in subsection (d) of § 40-6-392 refers to appellant’s refusal to permit a chemical analysis “to be made ... at the time of his arrest,” i.e., when he is asked to submit to it. It cannot possibly mean “at the precise moment of his arrest on the road,” because an approved state-administered chemical test of his “blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substance” usually cannot be given on the road. OCGA § 40-6-392 (d) allows admission in evidence of a defendant’s refusal to take the state-administered test when he is asked to submit to it, that is, when the police can properly administer it.
2. Under the majority’s construction, Perano obliterates the “implied consent” law, which the legislature provided so that any person operating a vehicle in the State of Georgia “shall be deemed to have given consent,” subject to OCGA § 40-6-392 to a chemical test to determine the alcóhol or drug content of his blood. OCGA § 40-5-55. This appellant refused to take the state-administered test for no reason that caused him any harm. Whatever the legislature meant in § 40-6-392 (a) (4) by saying that the arresting officer “at the time of *840arrest” shall advise the person arrested of his rights to an independent chemical test, it meant something different from subsection (d) of § 40-6-392 by providing that the defendant’s refusal to permit a “chemical analysis to be made ... at the time of his arrest” shall be admissible against him. The Staté’s chemical test cannot be “made” at the precise moment of arrest on the road. It can only be “made” when he is asked to submit to it.
Even if the results of the state test may be excluded under Perano in some cases, under § 40-6-392 (d) the admission of the defendant’s “refusal. . . to . . . permit” a chemical analysis is not a matter of judicial negotiation. That is, “the time of his arrest” referred to in subsection (d) is when the state’s chemical analysis can be made, and is a more broad proximal time of arrest, which includes his being taken to jail and asked to submit to the state test.
It is one thing to exclude the results of the state test when the defendant was not given a “meaningful” opportunity to have an independent test (Perano, supra) but it is quite another thing, and violates § 40-6-392 (d), to prohibit the state from its statutory right to admit his refusal to “permit a chemical analysis to be made ... at the time of his arrest.”
We note also that under OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (3), even the “justifiable failure or inability” to obtain an [independent] test shall not preclude the admission of [results of the state test].” This language speaks strongly of the legislative intent on this subject. We do not think the legislature or Perano meant to let a defendant refuse to take the state test in violation of § 40-5-55, and then prevent the admission of his refusal expressly allowed by § 40-6-392 (d), when he was not prejudiced by a failure to tell him at the instant of his arrest on the road of his right to an independent test.
3. Moreover, although the advice in Perano was not given at the moment of arrest, the evidence in Perano was held admissible. Thus, Perano does not create an absolute embargo on all evidence relative to the suspect’s condition if he was not advised at the moment of arrest on the road.
Although appellant was not advised of his right to an independent test at the moment he was taken into custody, he was properly advised prior to the police request to take the intoximeter test while he had an unfettered opportunity to have an independent test. This was a “meaningful” time, and “a time as close in proximity to the instant of arrest as the circumstances of the individual case might warrant.” Id. at 707, 708. Even following Perano, the circumstances of this case do not warrant allowing defendant to refuse to take the state test merely because he was not told at the moment of his arrest that he could have an independent test. Such a result flies in the face of §§ 40-6-392 (d) and 40-5-55. The legislature may clarify the variable *841use of “time of arrest” in § 40-6-392 (a) (4) and in subsection (d), but Perano does not require us to suppress evidence specifically allowed by OCGA § 40-6-392 (d).
What we are talking about is a defendant’s unjustified refusal to take the test, and the majority has ruled that he may do so with impunity even though he was caused no harm or even inconvenience by not being told of this right until prior to being asked to submit to the state’s chemical test at the jail. But appellant was given the advice while he still had the opportunity to have an independent test made; he was not denied an independent test; and nothing prevented him from having an independent test made except his own refusal to permit state-administered “chemical analysis to be made ... at the time of arrest.” OCGA § 40-6-392 (d). In fact, in view of the known tendency of blood-alcohol content to diminish in time, a delay was in appellant’s favor.
Even construing the Code narrowly, as the majority says we must, we find no harm to appellant in the procedure in this case. The state is not trying to introduce prejudicial evidence which arose before appellant was given the proper advice; his refusal to take the state-administered test occurred after he was given the proper advice at a “meaningful” time and when he had suffered no prejudice. Under § 40-6-392 (d), the state has a statutory right to admit this evidence of his refusal. He should not be allowed to benefit from his refusal to take the state-administered test, on account of a non-prejudicial delay in advising him of his implied consent rights.
That a refusal to submit to the test may create an inference that the test would show the presence of alcohol, see Givens v. State, 199 Ga. App. 709 (405 SE2d 898); Mendoza v. State, 196 Ga. App. 627, 629 (2) (396 SE2d 576); Shults v. State, 195 Ga. App. 525, 528 (3) (394 SE2d 573); Brooks v. State, 187 Ga. App. 194, 195 (1) (369 SE2d 801). This was evidence which, in view of the public’s interest in the use of our highways by intoxicated drivers, the state ought to be allowed to introduce. The state should be permitted to show that the driver who had already failed a field test (alcosensor) refused to take the police-administered test when he was advised of his rights at a “meaningful” time, especially when he was not harmed by the procedure used. The balance of policy interests in such a situation does not weigh in appellant’s favor, especially when he had already failed the field test for illegal intoxication and driving under the influence.
I conclude that under proper interpretation of OCGA § 40-6-392 (d), the state is expressly allowed to admit evidence of appellant’s refusal to permit a chemical test to be made when he is arrested, i.e., at the proximal time of arrest when he is asked to submit to it.
I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Pope joins in this dissent.
*842Decided March 16, 1993.
Cook, Noell, Tolley & Wiggins, Morton M. Wiggins III, for appellant.
Donald E. Moore, Solicitor, for appellee.