Ohio OVI Law: State v. Ridenour
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State v. Ridenour, 2010-Ohio-3373, 4th District Court of Appeals
July 19: Here, the Defendant was involved in a fatal accident and law enforcement suspected OVI. A trooper obtained a search warrant for the Defendant’s blood from a Meigs County Judge. This created an issue as the Defendant was being treated in a hospital in neighboring Gallia County. The resulting blood test revealed a BAC of .176. Defendant challenged the faulty search warrant via a motion to suppress. The motion was denied and the Defendant was convicted of Aggravated Vehicular Assault.
The 4th District Court of Appeals held that there was a “technical” violation of Crim.R. 41(A), which states: “A search warrant authorized by this rule may be issued by a judge of a court of record to search and seize property located within the court’s territorial jurisdiction, upon the request of a prosecuting attorney or a law enforcement officer”, the technical violation does not require exclusion of the evidence. The court indicated, in dicta, that it would have also permitted admission of the evidence under a Schmerber analysis.
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