Court Opinion

ID: 9732593
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:27:13.548124+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:29.975906
License: Public Domain

*376LANSING, Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result reached by the majority. I write separately on the use of the advisory for first-time offenders because I analyze that issue differently and may not want to be bound to the majority’s analysis in future cases that extend beyond the implied consent proceeding.
I agree that the advisory is not fatally inaccurate if the driver has a previous alcohol-related violation within five years or two such violations within ten years. See Minn.Stat. § 169.121, subd. la (Supp.1989). The warning may be incomplete in its advice to these drivers but it is not incorrect. Incompleteness has previously been held not to be a fatal defect. See State v. Frank, 365 N.W.2d 313, 314 (Minn.App.1985); see also Duckworth v. Eagan, — U.S.-, 109 S.Ct. 2875, 2879,106 L.Ed.2d 166 (1989).
When this same advisory is given to a first-time offender, however, the advisory is wrong. No first-time offender will be subject to criminal penalties for refusal to take the test. I agree with the majority’s assertion that due process requirements are not as exacting when, as here, the first-time offender is not faced with criminal penalties. I also observe that Moser’s conceding to take the test and then failing has a net effect of receiving a 90-day suspension rather than one year. Although there may be other effects on Moser’s license privileges or insurance rates, this deprivation was not affirmatively presented to the trial court or raised in the appeal.
The real problem, as I see it, emerges when the state attempts to use the test results as evidence against the driver in the criminal proceeding. Evidence obtained by threatening a criminal prosecution, when no criminal law has been violated, violates constitutional rights, and the evidence should not be admitted in a criminal case. Obtaining evidence in this way unfairly “tricks” a driver and implicates due process protections. See South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U.S. 553, 566, 103 S.Ct. 916, 924, 74 L.Ed.2d 748 (1983). This misinformation is all the more damaging because the person is in custody and prevented from consulting an attorney. By adding only a few words the advisory could be made accurate and could avoid improperly coercing first-time offenders.