A blood sample taken from a 68-year-old Little Rock man accused of striking a group of joggers was legally obtained by police, a Pulaski County circuit judge has ruled.
James Lee York, charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and four counts of felony second-degree battery, challenged the constitutionality of the statute used by Little Rock police to collect a sample of his blood, Arkansas Code 5-26-208, which requires that drivers involved in incidents "resulting in loss of human life or when there is reason to believe that death may result" undergo testing for alcohol and drugs by either blood, breath, saliva or urine.
Deputy prosecutor Phillip Underwood defended the blood collection, saying the law is constitutional because it is narrowly tailored to only apply in situations where people have been seriously hurt or killed. The police investigator, Ralph Breshears, fully complied with all of the requirements of the law to order blood testing, Underwood stated in written arguments to the judge.
Underwood also argued that York consented to the blood draw, done at the crash scene by a paramedic, even signing a consent form.
Judge Leon Johnson upheld the legality of the blood collection in a Wednesday ruling. York, who faces up to 24 years in prison, is scheduled for trial in September. Court records show a "trace" of cocaine was found in his system.
The statute had never been tested in Arkansas courts, and York, represented by attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, argued the law is not sufficient to overcome York's Fourth Amendment protections against police searches. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized that police taking a blood sample amounted to a search subject to the Fourth Amendment in a 2013 decision, Rosenzweig wrote in court filings.
The attorney disputed York had given consent to the blood draw as required by the law.
He argued the blood sample was illegally obtained and prosecutors should be barred from using the testing results at trial.
Prosecutors also could not rely on another statute, Arkansas Code 5-26-203, which gives police authority to take blood when there is reasonable suspicion the driver is impaired, Rosenzweig argued, since officers reported no signs of intoxication by York at the scene of the December 2013 collision in the 18000 block of Chenal Valley Drive, and he was not asked to undergo field sobriety tests. tten arguments to the judge.
According to police reports, York, driving his blue 1993 Chevrolet SV2 van, was delivering newspapers for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette when he struck Shashane Karamuellzar, Tarun Garg, Prasad Padala and Lakshmi Padala, who were running south in the bike lane against traffic.
York could not tell police which direction he was traveling when he struck the men, but witnesses said York was traveling northwest on Chenal Valley Drive. None of the witnesses saw the car hit the runners, the report said.
One of the witnesses, Matt Jaeger, was an emergency room doctor at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Jaeger jumped his backyard fence to come to the joggers' aid after hearing shouting from behind his Champagnolle Court home, the report said.
Metro on 05/16/2015