DUI Law: Appellate Review & Motion to Suppress

I have written extensively about the importance of filing a motion to suppress to challenge the evidence that the State can use against a defendant in a DUI case.  Counsel can use the motion to suppress as an informal discovery tool, as an informal deposition of the State’s witnesses, as a dry run of your scientific defense, or as a method of attacking the State’s witnesses.  Whatever your strategy, the goal is to win.  But what if you don’t?

A defendant has not direct appeal from a decision overruling a motion to suppress because an adverse ruling is not considered a “final appealable order.”  Traffic Rule 11 and Criminal Rule 12 set forth that an appeal of a denial of a motion to suppress can only be taken after a defendant has been found guilty and sentenced after a no contest plea or after a conviction at trial.

The lessons that we, as DUI counsel, should take away from this rule are: 1) if you have an issue which would only be evident at trial, take it to trial.  Only issues raised at the trial court can be raised on appeal; 2) if you don’t take the matter to trial, make copious use of “proffering” evidence upon which the court of appeals can base a ruling; 3) explain the options to your client before the motion and allow the client to put this into his or her risk-reward matrix.  Sometimes a client will be forced to make a decision on whether or not to pursue a trial before the motion to suppress because the act of having the motion will cause the prosecutor to take an existing deal off the table.

Dayton DUI Attorney Charles Rowland has been advising clients on DUI related matters since 1995. If you need to contact Charles Rowland, call (937)318-1DUI or 1-888-ROWLAND.

Related articles

• Ohio OVI: Why file a motion to suppress? (daytondui.com)
• OVI Update: When is Late Too Late? (daytondui.com)
• State v. Syx, 2010-Ohio-5880 (daytondui.com)