I have blogged before about just how far out of hand things have gotten in the zeal to pursue DUI cases. However, a recent story from Indiana might takes the cake. A 53 year old man was stopped and arrested for suspicion of DUI. He submitted to a breath test but was under the legal limit. Yes, his breath was tested at under the legal limit but, as the story says, “the officer doubted the results”. I am sorry but you’ve got to laugh. When the machine says a person is just barely over the legal limit, law enforcement and prosecutors will believe whatever the machine spits out as gospel and tell a jury that the machine can’t be wrong. When it doesn’t fit their preconceived idea, though, they “doubt” the result. But, that is not what is so completely bizzare, outrageous and sad about this story.
Unable to believe that he could be wrong, the officer ordered a blood draw from this citizen. Just to be doubly sure, he also ordered the FORCED CATHETERIZATION of this poor man. Wow! These additional tests confirmed that he was, in fact, not drunk. The officer has refused to apologize, but instead has charged the man with obstruction of justice because he was apparently not cooperative during the part of the encounter in which he was “shackled to a gurney and had a catheter inserted against his will”.
Urine tests in Kansas DUI cases are fairly rare, although with the new push to try to find drivers who are driving under the influence of drugs (legal and illegal), they will become more frequent. So, I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before we start seeing forced catheterizations in Kansas DUI cases. Why not? We have already sacrificed almost all of our constitutional rights upon the altar of DUI, anyway. Forced blood draws are increasingly popular in other states, and last year Kansas made it easier to forcibly extract blood from citizens who are involved in accidents. So, why not start strapping people down and forcibly removing their urine?
I can’t help but be cynical. These kinds of stories of government abuse pop up alarmingly frequently and the citizenry doesn’t seem to care. I mean this story would be scary if the man had actually been driving drunk. But the fact that a breath test had already demonstrated that he was under the legal limit (assuming, unlike the officer, that you trust these machines), and that he had already had his blood taken, makes this story particularly outrageous. Kansas DUI law allows the police officer that has arrested a DUI suspect to obtain a breath, blood or urine test from the person, or all three, multiple times, at his or her complete discretion. I certainly hope we don’t get to the point of forced catheterizations in Kansas, but don’t say you weren’t warned.