Lyon County, Iowa. Iowa Code Section 804.20 provides that an arrestee may be allowed to “call, consult, and see” an attorney family member or both at the place of detention and before being required to make a decision concerning a blood breath or urine test that his being requested by an arresting officer in an OWI case. When an officer limits the purpose of the phone call to “only getting advice about the test,” this infringes upon an arrestees rights under Iowa Code Section 804.20. This exact situation recently resulted in the breath test results being thrown out and an OWI charge getting amended to reckless driving. The result was that the GRL client did not lose their license nor was there a criminal conviction for the OWI.
