State v. Turney

Citations

• 2020 Ohio 4148

Syllabus

The trial court did not err by overruling appellant's motion to suppress the result of a breath alcohol test. The officers had reasonable, articulable suspicion of intoxication to detain appellant for field sobriety testing, and they had probable cause to arrest her based on their observations. Because the charge tried to the jury was operating a vehicle under the influence as a per se breath alcohol concentration (BAC) violation, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding expert testimony about the expected behavior of a person with a BAC level between .100 and .200 and the expert's opinion that he did not see those impairments in the police videos of the appellant. Impairment is not an issue when the only charge is a per se BAC violation. State v. Boyd, 18 Ohio St.3d 30, 479 N.E.2d 850 (1985). To have allowed the proffered testimony would consequently have allowed the State to introduce contrary evidence of additional signs of appellant's impairment, and the trial would have deteriorated into evaluation and consideration of impairment by the jury, solely for the purpose of speculation that appellant's otherwise valid .133 BAC was somehow inaccurate. The trial court also did not err by prohibiting appellant from challenging the general reliability of properly conducted breath tests. We find no error in the jury instructions. Judgment affirmed.