Some Texas Cities Get Warrants For Blood Of DWI Suspects

 FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Some Tarrant County police departments have begun using search warrants, in some cases, to obtain blood to test suspected drunken drivers who refuse to take a breath test.

"We have to treat DWI as a serious crime, just like we do any other crime,'' Sgt. Don Hanlon, supervisor of Fort Worth's traffic investigation unit, said of driving while intoxicated. "We've become accustomed to giving blood samples for DNA testing for violent crime. This is just a continuation of that. It's evidence of a person's innocence or guilt.''

Police say they will obtain search warrants sparingly and only against suspected habitual offenders.

Fort Worth DWI officers have obtained seven search warrants for blood. In each case, the drivers' alcohol-to-blood level was more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, Hanlon said.

Police in the Fort Worth suburb of Keller have used search warrants to obtain two blood samples since December, like Fort Worth police, said Keller police Lt. Tommy Williams.

Hanlon said that, without the blood-alcohol test results, obtaining convictions can be difficult in cases in which drivers refuse to submit to a breath or field sobriety test.

"Without a breath sample or blood sample, it's typically the officer's word against the defendant's,'' he said.

Roughly half of the DWI suspects stopped in Keller refuse to take a breath test, Williams said. Keller police also plan to use search warrants only in certain DWI cases, such as where the suspect is a repeat offender, he said.

"When you've got a situation where it's a very serious DWI - there are other mitigating factors in it - you definitely want to have a tool like that to get a dangerous driver off the road and keep them off the road,'' Williams said.

Typically, officers obtain search warrants by providing a judge or magistrate with a written affidavit outlining a probable cause for why the driver is suspected of being intoxicated. If the magistrate agrees that the affidavit establishes probable cause to conduct a search, a warrant is issued.

Blood is then drawn by a medically qualified person, usually at a hospital.

Richard Alpert, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney, said a ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals two years ago confirmed that search warrants are a legal option in DWI cases.

In one recent case, police in Saginaw, another Fort Worth suburb, obtained a blood sample voluntarily from a man suspected of driving drunk in December. The next month, after his car struck several parked vehicles and a tree, the man refused to give a sample.

"Leave me alone! I've got nothing else to say or do here,'' a police report quoted Brent Standifer as saying when police requested a blood sample.

Police obtained a search warrant and a blood sample in the January incident and determined Standifer's blood-alcohol level was .20 percent. Three weeks later, Standifer was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the Fort Worth and Saginaw DWI charges.

Brenda Hansen, Standifer's attorney, said the blood-test results were one of several factors that motivated her client to plead guilty.

Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram