Iowa Supreme Court Decisions
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suppression of illegal blood draw upheld
The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the suppression of a chemical blood test result obtained from Attorney Matthew Thomas Lindholm's client in an operating while intoxicated charge. The court was asked to decide whether the blood test which was withdrawn without consent and without a warrant would run afoul of Iowa law. In deciding to uphold suppression of the test result,Breitling Navitimer Replica the Iowa Supreme Court determined that Iowa law requires "the peace officer, not the county attorney, reasonably believe that the delay involved in obtaining a search warrant would result in the destruction of evidence." Since the peace officer was unable to assert that "the reason he ordered the warrantless blood sample was his belief that the time it would take to obtain the warrant would result in the destruction of evidence" and instead was only relying upon the instructions of the county attorney, the statutory prerequisite for obtaining the blood sample without a warrant was not met.
Attorney Matthew Lindholm of Gourley, Rehkemper, & Lindholm, was pleased in the outcome of the decision. "This was the correct and only decision possible given the facts of this case. If the Iowa Supreme Court would have decided otherwise, they would have ignored the plain letter of the law giving police another avenue to intrude into a person's privacy without consent." A copy of this decision is available at Iowa Supreme Court Opinions (http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/Supreme_Court/Recent_Opinions/20090306/07-0045.pdf).
::: IOWA SUPREME COURT :::
::: ATTORNEY MATTHEW THOMAS LINDHOLM :::
::: GOURLEY, REHKEMPER & LINDHOLM :::