Tarrant County’s DWI no-refusal plans intact after court ruling

People who drink and drive in Tarrant County during holiday seasons should not count on a recent appeals court decision to shield them from the long needle of the law.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday that law enforcement officers must have a warrant in hand before they can force suspects against their will to submit to a blood alcohol content test.

Richard Alpert, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney, said Tarrant County officials and other prosecutors saw the possibility of this ruling from the appeals early on and acted to minimize its impact on “no refusal” operations.

“I’m unhappy with the opinion, but it will not drastically change the way we do business here, ” Alpert said. “Counties have been waiting and hoping that the decision would go differently, but most counties have prepared for this eventuality.”

Since April 2013, Tarrant County law enforcement officials have been instructed to obtain search warrants before taking the blood of suspected impaired drivers, Alpert said. Judges and magistrates are on call and available during the holiday season to review and sign the warrants, he said.

Should a driver suspected of being drunk refuse a breath test, he or she can be detained and forced to provide a blood sample after a signed search warrant is provided, Alpert said. The search warrants can be hand-delivered or transmitted electronically by fax or email, Alpert said.

Some Tarrant County cases filed before April 2013 may be affected by the ruling, but Alpert estimated those cases numbered fewer than 100. It is difficult to tell exactly how many cases might be affected because some might be viable without blood evidence, Alpert said.

Alpert estimated that about 90 percent of no refusal DWI cases brought to the Tarrant County DA’s office resulted in guilty pleas.

The appeals court ruling stems from a 2012 Nueces County case involving David Villarreal, a man who refused to take a sobriety test and refused to provide a blood or breath sample after being stopped for an unnamed traffic violation, the opinion stated. A criminal history check revealed Villarreal had several DWI convictions, the opinion showed.

The officer relied on a Texas statute saying that impaired driving suspects with two or more DWI convictions can be required to provide a blood sample. A test of Villarreal’s blood showed a blood-alcohol content of 0.16, twice the legal limit, according to the opinion.

After Villarreal was indicted, his attorney cited a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that drawing a DWI suspect’s blood without a warrant violated the suspect’s constitutional right against unreasonable search and seizure. The trial judge agreed, saying the blood sample and the evidence it produced was inadmissible. Prosecutors appealed, leading to Wednesday’s ruling.

This story was originally published November 26, 2014 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Tarrant County’s DWI no-refusal plans intact after court ruling."