TX1: A police officer contemplating a blood draw by search warrant is not obligated to inquire into the medical history of the suspect to predetermine reasonableness

A police officer contemplating a blood draw by search warrant is not obligated to inquire into the medical history of the suspect to predetermine reasonableness. Dromgoole v. State, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 5662 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) June 4, 2015):

Before requiring a defendant to submit to a blood draw, a police officer does not have a duty to inquire into the defendant’s medical history. Johnston, 336 S.W.3d at 659. Rather, the suspect, naturally familiar with his or her own medical history, is in the best position to identify and disclose any particular medical condition that could result in risk, trauma or more than de minimus pain if a blood draw were to be performed. Id. at 660. From this we can conclude that the defendant bears the burden to establish that she notified the officer or the person performing the blood draw that her relevant medical history would render a blood draw unreasonably medically risky. See id. Appellant argues that she should not have a burden to inform the police officer or person performing the blood draw about how the blood draw could impact her due to a medical condition. Instead, she argues, she should be able to present this fact for the first time at the motion to suppress to defeat the presumption of a reasonable blood draw. We must reject this argument.

The United States Supreme Court has held that the relevant inquiry into the reasonableness of a search and seizure depend on the facts known to the officer at the moment of the search and seizure. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 1880, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889 (1968). Specifically, it held the relevant question is “would the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure or the search ‘warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief’ that the action taken was appropriate?” Id. (emphasis added). Because the relevant inquiry is what information was available to the officer at the time of the seizure, a defendant cannot seek suppression of evidence based on facts that are disclosed for the first time in a motion to suppress hearing. See id.