State v. Ferrazzano-Mazza

Citations

• 202 Conn. App. 411

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crime of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs as a third time offender, and, after a court trial, of the infraction of operating a motor vehicle without a license, the defendant appealed to this court. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on her claim that the trial court improperly excluded evidence that she had offered to take a blood test in lieu of a Breathalyzer test and gave the jury a limiting instruction that it could not consider her offer to take a blood test as relevant to any issue in the case: a. There was no merit to the defendant's claim that the trial court improperly excluded evidence regarding her purported offer to take a blood test, as the state, during its direct examination of D, the state trooper who arrested and processed the defendant, elicited the very testimony that the defendant asserted was improperly excluded and the defendant, thereafter, did not attempt to question D about this or to offer any other evidence of her purported offer to take a blood test. b. Even if this court assumed that the trial court's limiting instruction concerning the relevancy of the defendant's purported offer to take a blood test was improper, there was no reasonable possibility that the jury was misled: although the defendant correctly argued that evidence of an offer to take a blood test instead of a Breathalyzer test may be relevant to rebut the inference of guilt permitted under the applicable statute (§ 14-227a (e)) when a defendant refuses to take the specific chemical test chosen by a police officer, in this case, there was no evidence that the defendant offered to take a blood test, and, therefore, an instruction that the jury could consider the defendant's consent to a blood test would have confused the jury; moreover, the state presented overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt, independent of her refusal to take a Breathalyzer test. 2. The defendant's clai