Court Opinion

ID: 9720550
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:35:12.28863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:19.472470
License: Public Domain

*832JONES, J.,* Dissenting.
Although I agree with the majority opinion that law enforcement officers are under no duty to notify the prosecutor immediately every time they learn of “some piece of evidence that might be favorable to a person under arrest” the situation presented here is quite another matter. The arrestee in this case chose to submit to a blood test at the time of his arrest on May 2d and a sample of his blood was taken for this purpose within 40 minutes after he was first stopped by the police. Thereafter the sample was transmitted to the criminalist laboratory of the sheriff’s office, where it was analyzed on May 5th. The blood alcohol level was found to be .00 and the criminalist accordingly noted his opinion that the arrestee was not under the influence of alcohol at the time the specimen was taken, the only possible conclusion in view of the test results. In addition, although the complaint filed against Tribulski charged him only with driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor, the blood sample was also tested for a barbituric acid derivative, with a negative finding.
Under these circumstances there can be no doubt that the sheriff had notice of a fact sufficient to put him as a reasonable man under the duty to investigate the validity of Tribulski’s continued incarceration. (See Sullivan v. County of Los Angeles (1974) 12 Cal.3d 710 [117 Cal.Rptr. 241, 527 P.2d 865].) Rather than just being “some piece of evidence that might be favorable to a person under arrest,” the criminalist’s analysis and necessarily resulting opinion constituted conclusive evidence from the prosecution’s own expert that the arrestee was innocent of the charges pending against him. It was as fully exonerating as a laboratory analysis establishing the innocent nature of a suspected substance on a person charged with narcotic possession. Despite this knowledge, however, the sheriff’s representatives ignored the obvious and forwarded the test result to the prosecutor in routine fashion, which in this case, according to the record, resulted in the passage of almost two weeks before the evidence was received at the district attorney’s office on May 18th.
As the deputy district attorney indicated in his testimony, the blood alcohol test result, when known' to him, is very important in his decision whether or not to go to trial on a charge filed before the result is known. In the case of a .00 reading the result is completely absolving, a fact which must have been obvious not only to the district attorney when he finally learned of it, but also to the sheriff and his agents. Such knowledge being chargeable to the sheriff there was then imposed on him the duty to *833inform the district attorney promptly so that the latter could take appropriate steps to dismiss the charge.
Requiring the sheriff to notify the district attorney immediately of any completely exonerating evidence pertaining to a person in custody pending trial is a slight burden, not the impossible burden envisioned by the majority opinion. Surely one would rarely expect a .00 result in a chemical test for blood alcohol content of a person charged with driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor. Such a reading should stand out like a red flag, calling for attention and appropriate action by any reasonable jailer who has the test subject in custody. Anything less is intolerable when viewed in the light of the arrestee’s overriding interest in avoiding unjustified incarceration. (Sullivan v. County of Los Angeles, supra, 12 Cal.3d 710, 719.) “The law does not hold the value of a man’s freedom in such low regard.” (Whirl v. Kern (5th Cir. 1969) 407 F.2d 781, 792, cert. den. 396 U.S. 901 [24 L.Ed.2d 177, 90 S.Ct. 210].)
“Intentionally to hold another in confinement for being drunk when one knows or should know that he is not drunk, is to confine him unjustifiably.” (Tufte v. City of Tacoma (1967) 71 Wn.2d 866 [431 P.2d 183, 186].) By the same token, continuing to hold a person in confinement for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor after the sheriff knows or should know that the person was not under that influence is unjustifiable. It must be presumed that the prosecuting attorney, pursuant to his duty to further the administration of justice, would have taken speedy action to obtain a dismissal and discharge order for Tribulski if a sheriff’s deputy had made a phone call upon learning of the absolving evidence. Merely putting such evidence into the course of routine transmission, so that the prosecutor first received it almost two weeks later did not comply with the sheriff’s legal duty. The majority opinion holding to the contrary serves only to encourage further dehumanization of the jail system in its treatment of prisoners.
The trial court ruling preventing the presentation of evidence to the jury of the sheriff’s neglect was prejudicial error, in my opinion, and the judgment should therefore be reversed.

Assigned by the Chairperson of the Judicial Council.