A Dubuque County woman was charged with OWI and two counts of child endangerment after her estranged husband called the cops on her after they got into a verbal argument while swapping visitation of their children. When officers arrived the husband advised that he wanted them to check his wife to see if she had been drinking, despite him not smelling alcohol or observing any signs that she had been drinking. Three law enforcement agencies arrived at her residence and spoke with her. Despite none of them smelling an odor of alcohol or making any observations that led them to believe she had been drinking, they asked her to submit to a field sobriety test, which she passed. Law enforcement asked for a pbt just to “show that it was zeros”, which she refused. She was then put through more field sobriety tests and arrested.
The DOT overturned her license revocation because the officer lacked reasonable grounds to believe that she had been operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol when he offered her the pbt, which meant that the officer had no grounds to invoke implied consent and request a breath test on the Datamaster. The State agreed to dismiss the charges in exchange for a plea to disorderly conduct.
