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Woah...I hadn't read this yet. Technically, we have the right to take breath/and or blood. We handle it this way...
DWI = breath
Intox assault &
Intox manslaughter = Blood drawl (whether you like it or not). Done by a nurse at a hospital and blood is taken to Medical Examiners office.
This is what you agree to do when you sign for your license. If you refuse when the time comes, you get your license revoked and you get charged w/ the offense. You can refuse the breath test...that's fine and you lose your license and get booked for DWI.
You can refuse the blood test (again, which is only employed in the case of serious bodily injury or death to any other party), but the blood will be taken anyway.
Personally, I see problems w/ the police taking blood. Now, if you are in BFE where there are no nurses present or on call to do this and the PD had been properly trained and licensed, the driver is SOL. I can't say how others will do this, but OUR policies haven't changed.
This sounds much more like it's out in rural counties. I hope what I said clears it up somewhat. Feel free to ask questions.
Oh, and new Supreme Court ruling says that we now only need to get one blood drawl from the DWI driver. It used to be that we had to wait another two hours to get the second to see if the driver was going up or coming down in BAC. This is great, because that was two hours sittting and waiting at the hospital for the same nurse to take another drawl. Now, we can get on with it!!!!
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