State v. Fields

Citations

• 207 Conn. App. 791

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crimes of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs and operating a motor vehicle while having an elevated blood alcohol content, the defendant appealed to this court, claiming that the trial court improperly declined to suppress evidence of his performance of a field sobriety test, a search warrant application and his blood alcohol content because that evidence was the tainted fruit of an illegal detention of him by the police. Following a report of a one vehicle accident on Interstate 84, O, a state trooper, was dispatched to the scene. While en route, O was informed by the dispatcher, who was watching the site through live feed cameras, that the two occupants of the vehicle were running from the scene. When O arrived at the scene, she observed the defendant and another person walking along the highway approximately 300 feet from the crashed vehicle. O approached them and briefly placed them in handcuffs for her safety and to prevent them from fleeing further. When another trooper arrived, O removed the handcuffs and began to administer field sobriety tests to the defendant, who was the driver of the vehicle. While O was speaking with him, she detected the odor of alcohol coming from his breath and noticed that his speech was slow and slurred and that his eyes were ''glossy.'' The defendant failed the first test and declined to perform another. Thereafter, the defendant was transported to a hospital. O remained at the scene where she obtained an account of the accident by the person who had reported it. He told O that he had observed the defendant's vehicle travelling at a high rate of speed, slide out of control and crash and that, when he spoke with the defendant, he could smell alcohol on his breath. O also inspected the defendant's vehicle and found an empty beer bottle and an empty bottle of liqueur. Subsequently, O prepared an application for a search and seizure warrant with a s