NEENAH, WI (WTAQ) – The conviction in a Neenah OWI case was upheld on Wednesday.
The case stems from an August 2017 incident when 40-year-old Jesse Kain was pulled over for having an obstructed license plate.
After the officer smelled alcohol on Kain a blood test revealed his BAC was higher than the .02 limit due to prior convictions.
He was sentenced to 45 days in jail after a jury convicted him of driving with a prohibited alcohol level.
Kain argued since he had an ignition interlock his car wouldn’t have started if he was drinking, so the officer didn’t have probable cause to arrest him.
The appeals court rejected this argument.
“Kain is asking us to create a bright-line rule that when an ignition interlock device is in a suspect’s vehicle, it negates a finding of probable cause when an officer detects an odor of alcohol and has knowledge of a .02 BAC restriction. We will not do so. The obvious purpose of the ignition interlock device is to make vehicles inaccessible to drunk drivers. The ignition interlock device is a factor to consider in determining probable cause—it is not a negating factor. In this case, the knowledge of Kain’s prior OWI convictions, coupled with the odor of alcohol, Kain’s admission to drinking, and the officer’s knowledge that Kain “could drink only a very small amount before exceeding the legal limit that applied to him,” led to the officer’s reasonable conclusion that a statutory violation was probable. Further, Kain was not originally arrested for the PAC violation; he was arrested for the active warrant. Mulroy obtained the search warrant for Kain’s blood after he had been taken into custody, meaning he received a judicial seal of approval based on the search warrant approved by the on-duty judge. The circuit court properly denied Kain’s motion to suppress,” the ruling states.
