OH11: Violation of the BAC statutes has no exclusionary remedy; it must be constitutionally unreasonable for exclusion

While statute requires a blood draw from a “qualified technician,” there is no statutory exclusionary remedy for a failure. Alternatively, this blood draw was not otherwise unreasonable to justify exclusion. State v. Coxwell, 2012 Ohio 6215, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 5428 (11th Dist. December 31, 2012).*

The suppression motion wasn’t timely, and the state was offered a continuance to prepare, which it declined. It can’t claim prejudice merely from the untimely motion that was granted. There was a violation of state statute in the taking of urine for a BAC, but the statute does not provide for suppression as a remedy. Under state law, if the statutory violation equates with a constitutional violation, suppression would be a valid remedy. Here there was also consent. The trial court found that the defendant consented, but there was no finding on voluntariness of consent. The judgment is reversed and remanded for a new suppression hearing where the trial court will make findings on voluntariness. State v. Starkey, 2012 Ohio 6219, 985 N.E.2d 295 (11th Dist. 2012).*

Defendant’s detention was held in a prior appeal in 2010 to be valid, so it couldn’t be relitigated. The affidavit for the search warrant was not deceptively false under Franks. The statement was a reasonable conclusion based on the evidence available to the officer, which is permitted. State v. Mendenhall, 2013 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1 (January 2, 2013).* [Not yet on court’s website]