Unconscious DUI Suspects and Warrantless Blood Draws

• Warrantless DUI Blood Draws of an Unconscious Hospitalized Suspect
• Exigent Circumstances Justifying a Warrantless Blood Draw

The Fourth Amendment “almost always” permits a warrantless blood draw from an unconscious DUI suspect who is hospitalized. An unconscious DUI suspect who is hospitalized and about to go into surgery is a sufficient exigency allowing for a warrantless blood draw.

On October 27, 2017, Defendant Alberic Roland Nault had a dilemma.  His pickup truck had been impounded a couple of months earlier when last busted for DUI (his 4th since 2000), and he wanted it back.  The problem was that the tow yard where defendant’s pickup was being held wouldn’t let him have the truck as long as his driver’s license was still suspended.  So he paid a stranger $100 to show the tow yard employees a valid license to get the truck out of hock.  Somehow this ruse worked, and defendant drove away in his vehicle.  Celebrating his cleverness, defendant got wasted once again.  And despite having previously been subjected by various sentencing courts to a “morgue program designed to snap him into focus,” as well as two other alcohol awareness programs, defendant decided to go for a drive.  At 7:00 p.m. that evening, defendant found himself on a dark two-lane highway, stuck behind an “18-wheeler” truck.  The 18-wheeler, being driven by Laurentino Doval Carlos, was doing only about 50 mph in a 55 mph zone, holding defendant back.  So defendant tried to pass him, revving his pickup to about 70 mph as he pulled around the truck. Despite ....