NM: DWI sufficiently serious to justify exigent circumstances for warrantless entry, depending on the circumstances

DWI is sufficiently serious a crime, noting Welsh, that exigent circumstances are possible, but there are no bright line rules. A warrantless entry might be reasonable under the circumstances. State v. Nance, 2011 N.M. App. LEXIS 14 (March 15, 2011):

P19 Perhaps because reasonableness is the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment inquiry, courts have resisted fashioning per se rules authorizing warrantless home entry based only upon the dissipation of alcohol. For example, while the United States Supreme Court in Welsh stated that “a warrantless home arrest cannot be upheld simply because evidence of the petitioner’s blood-alcohol level might have dissipated while the police obtained a warrant,” it was careful to repeatedly qualify this statement as applying only in light of the fact that Wisconsin had chosen to classify a first offense DWI as a non-criminal civil forfeiture offense for which no imprisonment was possible. Welsh, 466 U.S. at 754. Similarly, while the United States Supreme Court in Schmerber approved of a warrantless blood test due to exigent circumstances, which included the dissipation of blood alcohol, 384 U.S. at 770-71, the Court explicitly limited the decision to the facts, noting that “[t]he integrity of an individual’s person is a cherished value of our society” and that the holding “that the Constitution does not forbid the State’s minor intrusions into an individual’s body under stringently limited conditions in no way indicates that it permits more substantial intrusions, or intrusions under other conditions.” Id. at 772; see also State v. Richerson, 87 N.M. 437, 441, 535 P.2d 644, 648 (Ct. App. 1975) (recognizing that, in addition to dissipation of alcohol, Schmerber also requires a valid arrest and probable cause before a warrant may be dispensed with).

P20 We have previously addressed the question of whether the metabolization of alcohol created an exigent circumstance. In Copeland, a drunk driver struck and killed a police officer in a hit and run accident. 105 N.M. at 29, 727 P.2d at 1344. Police developed a description of the vehicle from evidence found at the scene of the accident, and the vehicle was found at a nearby motel. Id. at 29-30, 727 P.2d at 1344-45. Officers traced the vehicle to a specific room, but nobody answered when the officers knocked on the door. Id. at 30, 727 P.2d at 1345. It had been about two-and-one-half hours since the accident, and officers were concerned that they might lose their opportunity to obtain evidence of whether the driver was intoxicated. Id. Police broke the chain lock on the door, entered the room, and arrested the defendant, who subsequently registered a blood alcohol level of approximately 0.20. Id.