Boone County, Iowa. Iowa Code Section 804.20 requires that a person who has been arrested be allowed a “reasonable opportunity” to place telephone calls prior to deciding whether to submit to chemical testing. However, in this particular case the judge ruled that the Client’s refusal to submit to a breath test should be excluded from trial because the officer required his phone calls to be placed on a recorded land line as opposed to his cell phone. The ruling cited the fact that there was no meaningful opportunity provided to have someone call him back when there was no call back number and he was not allowed to use his cell phone. As a result of the ruling, the charge was reduced from OWI to public intoxication. The Client never lost his license and he will be able to have the public intoxication charge expunged from his record in two years.
