Background
Paula Andrea Champion called 911 after her vehicle struck something while she was driving northbound on I-43 at night and sustained a flat tire. Officers found her stopped partly in a highway exit lane. They smelled alcohol, observed red and glossy eyes, and moved her to a nearby parking lot to conduct field sobriety tests in a safer setting.
With assistance from a Spanish interpreter, Champion said she had consumed one glass of wine at dinner. She performed three field sobriety tests. Some instructions were not translated fully, and Champion challenged the resulting observations. After a preliminary breath test, officers arrested her. The circuit court denied her suppression motion, and Champion was convicted after a stipulated-facts trial of operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration.
The Court’s Holding
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed. The court held that officers had reasonable suspicion to investigate whether Champion had operated while intoxicated based on the totality of the circumstances: her report that she hit something while driving, her immobilized vehicle in the highway exit lane, the odor of alcohol, and her red, glossy eyes. Moving her to a nearby safer location for field sobriety tests did not unlawfully prolong the investigation.
The court also held that officers had the statutory level of probable cause required to request a preliminary breath test. Although the court disregarded failures tied to instructions that were not translated, it concluded that the remaining circumstances—including Champion’s drinking admission, physical signs, driving incident, and observations during the tests—supported the request for a PBT.
Key Takeaways
- Reasonable suspicion may rest on the combined circumstances of a driving incident, signs of alcohol use, and an officer’s observations.
- Transporting a motorist a short distance to perform field sobriety tests safely can remain within the scope of an OWI investigation.
- Imperfectly translated field-test instructions do not require exclusion of all observations from the tests.
Why It Matters
The decision applies the totality-of-the-circumstances standard to an OWI investigation involving language interpretation issues. It distinguishes observations attributable to untranslated instructions from other indicators of impairment and confirms that a PBT may be requested on probable cause short of probable cause to arrest.