Yesterday, the Indiana Court of Appeals announced a surprising reversal of a DUI conviction in Richard Gatewood v. State of Indiana, No. 03A04-0908-CR-449. Gatewood was convicted of Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated in Bartholomew Superior Court by Judge Kathleen T. Coriden, Cause No. 03D02-0706-FD-0787.
Gatewood was suspected of being intoxicated while driving his moped to visit his mother at Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, Indiana on May 23, 2007. Police arrived at 9:00pm to find Gatewood sleeping next to his moped, and learned from hospital security guards that he had operated his moped approximately one (1) hour earlier. Police observed several physical symptoms of alcohol at that time, but had not observed Gatewood before 9:00pm. Security guards claim that Gatewood showed signs of difficulty walking, but Gatewood had suffered many physical injuries in both of his legs and often showed these signs.
The arresting officer, Officer Kapcynski, testified that probable cause for the arrest resulted from an inevitability of intoxication at the time Gatewood operated his moped based on Gatewood’s state at 9:00pm, despite the fact that the officer could not estimate the amount of vodka a man Gatewood’s size would have to consume in an hour in order to reach the blood-alcohol content found in Gatewood’s blood. The jury in the Bartholomew Superior Court agreed, and convicted Gatewood of Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated, a Class D Felony for a second offense.
Judge Nancy Vaidik, a judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals and a former Porter Superior Court Judge, reasoned that evidence of Gatewood’s intoxication at 9:00pm was insufficient to show that he operated his moped in an intoxicated state at 8:00pm, simply based on evidence that he was intoxicated at 9:00pm.
Has this happened to someone you know?