Boone County Iowa. A GRL client recently had his OWI charge amended to public intoxication and avoid a driver’s license suspension following a thoughtful and well reasoned ruling granting his motion to suppress and throwing out the results of his field sobriety tests and his breath test refusal. At issue was whether the client had been forced and coerced into completing field sobriety tests and whether Iowa’s implied consent statutes which only inform a person that there will be consequences to their drivers license were coercive. The court found that the client had not been given a choice whether he wanted to complete field sobriety tests and that implied consent advisory misinformed him that there would only be license suspension proceedings if he refused the test. The court also concluded that the client’s rights under Iowa Code Section 804.20 had been violated because he was not allowed an opportunity to have a video conference with his attorney.
