Date: 03-13-2016

Case Style: State of Vermont v. Tisa Farrow

Case Number: 2016 VT 30

Judge: Beth Robinson

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Plaintiff's Attorney: Gregory Nagurney

Defendant's Attorney: Mark Eastman Furlan

Description: The relevant background is as follows. Defendant was arraigned on charges of
driving under the influence (DUI) pursuant to 23 V.S.A. § 1201(a)(2) (“A person shall not
operate . . . any vehicle on a highway . . . when the person is under the influence of intoxicating
liquor.”) Before trial, defendant filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude from evidence
the arresting officer’s testimony about his observations and opinion regarding defendant’s
performance of the “Modified Rhomberg Test” (MRT),2 as well as the videotape of the event.
Defendant had previously declined to perform field sobriety tests. Thereafter, at the officer’s
request, defendant began the exercise in question, which involved closing her eyes, leaning her
head back, and counting thirty seconds. She stopped five to eight seconds later, indicating that
she did not want to do the exercise. Defendant’s written motion stated that the MRT evidence
was irrelevant because the exercise was never completed and was thus unreliable, and that even
if the evidence was marginally relevant, any probative value it had was substantially outweighed
by the danger of unfair prejudice.
¶ 4. Argument on this motion overlapped somewhat with pretrial discussion of the
court’s proposed jury instructions. Defense counsel argued that telling the jury it could infer
consciousness of guilt from defendant stopping the exercise but not allowing the jury to consider
any number of other reasons why she may have stopped the exercise would be highly prejudicial.
During the argument on this motion, defense counsel also suggested that defendant was told to
take the test, and was not given an opportunity to refuse.
1 Defendant does not appeal her convictions for driving with a suspended license, reckless endangerment, and violation of conditions of release associated with the same incident, and we do not address them here. See, e.g., Foster & Gridley v. Winner, 169 Vt. 621, 622, 740 A.2d 1283, 1285 (1999) (mem.).
2 The MRT is a balance test requiring the participant to stand with arms at side, feet together, and head back while closing his or her eyes for thirty seconds.
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¶ 5. In response, the State emphasized it was not planning to present the interrupted
MRT as a “test,” but rather as an exercise that led to the trooper’s observations that defendant
swayed briefly before stopping the exercise.
¶ 6. The trial court denied defendant’s motion in limine and admitted the contested
evidence. The trial court noted that this Court had held that a defendant’s failure or refusal to do
a voluntary field sobriety exercise is relevant as evidence of consciousness of guilt. See State v.
Curavoo, 156 Vt. 72, 74-75, 587 A.2d 963, 964-65 (1991) (rejecting defendant’s argument that
trial court erred by allowing evidence of his refusal to perform field sobriety exercises). The trial
court also noted, however, that this Court had specifically declined to reach the argument that,
absent a warning that a refusal can be used against a defendant at trial, the refusal cannot be used
in that way. Id. at 74 n.1, 587 A.2d at 964 n.1. With respect to the jury instruction, the trial
court made it clear that it would instruct the jurors that, in addition to considering the possibility
that defendant’s decision to stop the test reflected consciousness of guilt, they could consider
other explanations raised by the defense.
¶ 7. At trial, the state trooper who arrested defendant testified to the following facts.
At approximately 9:20 in the morning of September 17, 2012, the trooper stopped defendant
after observing that she was driving a car with an expired inspection sticker. Upon approaching
the car and seeing signs that she was intoxicated, the trooper ordered defendant to get out of the
car. When she did, the trooper observed three empty six-to-eight-ounce wine bottles on the
floorboard of the car. Defendant admitted to the trooper that she had consumed the contents of
those bottles that morning. When the trooper asked defendant to perform field sobriety
exercises, she said she did not want to because she was old3 and had problems with her balance.
The trooper testified that DUI suspects during roadside stops are not required to perform field
sobriety exercises. After defendant declined to do field sobriety exercises, the trooper asked her 3 The trooper testified that defendant was sixty-one years old.
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to stand with her feet together, arms at her side, eyes closed, and her head tilted back while she
counted the passage of thirty seconds. The officer testified that defendant started to do the
exercise for a few seconds before opening her eyes and saying either that she could not, or did
not want to, continue the exercise. He also testified that during the few seconds she attempted to
perform the exercise she swayed before opening her eyes and stopping. The jury then watched a
brief video recording of defendant attempting to perform the exercise. The trooper testified that
he arrested defendant on suspicion of DUI on the basis of the above evidence.4
¶ 8. Defendant neither testified nor presented any evidence.
¶ 9. Following the close of evidence, the trial court denied defendant’s motion for
judgment of acquittal. With no objection from the defense, the court instructed the jury as
follows:
There has been testimony in this case about whether [defendant] declined—whether or not she declined to perform field sobriety tests. Under the laws of the State of Vermont, an operator suspected of driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor has a statutory right to refuse to perform field sobriety tests.5 You may consider whether [defendant] refused to perform field sobriety tests and may use this evidence, along with other evidence, to decide whether the State has met its burden of proving each of the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. However, you are not required to draw any inference from this evidence.
4 The State did not introduce any evidence of defendant’s blood alcohol concentration— an essential element of a DUI charge pursuant to 23 V.S.A. § 1201(a)(1), but not pursuant to § 1201(a)(2).
5 Vermont’s statutes do not actually address a driver’s right to refuse to engage in field sobriety tests, as contrasted with a preliminary breath test, but we have judicially recognized that an officer may not physically force an individual to perform field-sobriety exercises. See State v. McGuigan, 2008 VT 111, ¶ 17, 184 Vt. 441, 965 A.2d 511 (recognizing that roadside detainees may refuse to submit to field sobriety tests and police may not physically force detainees to perform tests); State v. Blouin, 168 Vt. 119, 122, 716 A.2d 826, 828 (1998) (concluding that police have right to request performance of field sobriety tests and individual has right to refuse to perform them); see also Commonwealth v. Blais, 701 N.E.2d 314, 319 (Mass. 1998) (“The very nature of [field-sobriety tests] makes the use of force to compel their performance obviously inappropriate.”).
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¶ 10. The jury found defendant guilty. Following the jury’s guilty verdict on the DUI
charge, defendant stipulated to having been convicted of DUI on two previous occasions, thereby
subjecting her to an enhanced punishment for DUI, third offense.
¶ 11. On appeal, defendant challenges the trial court’s admission of the video recording
and the trooper’s testimony concerning defendant’s conduct and ultimate cessation of the MRT
on the basis of the Vermont Rules of Evidence and the Vermont Constitution. With respect to
the challenge under the Rules of Evidence, she contends that the trial court erred in concluding
that the contested evidence was relevant and in failing to engage in a Rule 403 balancing test
before admitting the evidence. With respect to the latter, she argues based on the Fourth and
Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Chapter I, Articles 10 and 11 of the
Vermont Constitution that evidence of her terminating her participation in the exercise, offered
through the video and the trooper’s testimony, may not be admitted to show consciousness of
guilt when the trooper did not advise her that her refusal to do the exercise might be used against
her at trial.6
¶ 12. Two prior decisions of this Court serve as the starting point for our analysis of
both sets of challenges. We have twice held that an individual’s refusal to perform a requested
exercise may be admissible in court. In Curavoo, we rejected the defendant’s argument that
because he had a right to refuse to perform field dexterity tests, his refusal could not be admitted
in court. 156 Vt. at 74-75, 587 A.2d at 964-65. We cited a South Dakota case holding that a
refusal to submit to field dexterity tests is evidence of consciousness of guilt, and explained that
all relevant evidence is admissible, except as limited by constitutional requirements, statute, rules
6 At oral argument, in direct contradiction of her briefing on appeal, defendant further argued that we should overrule our decision in Blouin, in which we held that an individual’s refusal to perform a field sobriety test is non-testimonial and therefore admissible in evidence. 168 Vt. at 121-22, 716 A.2d at 828. We will not address an argument raised for the first time at oral argument, especially when it contradicts defendant’s brief on appeal. See TD Banknorth, N.A. v. Dep’t of Taxes, 2008 VT 120, ¶ 33, 185 Vt. 45, 967 A.2d 1148.
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of evidence, or other legal rules. Id. (citing State v. Hoenscheid, 374 N.W.2d 128, 132 (S.D.
1985)). Because the defendant did not identify any source of law for excluding the evidence, we
concluded that it was properly admitted. Id. In a footnote, we acknowledged the defendant’s
argument that he was not warned that his refusal would be admissible in court, but because he
did not raise the argument below, the record was silent regarding whether warnings were, in fact,
provided at the time of the request. Finding no plain error, we declined to address the argument.
Id. at 74 n.1, 587 A.2d at 964 n.1.
¶ 13. When we elaborated on the issue in Blouin, we emphasized the absence of any
statutory or constitutional constraint on the admission of such refusal evidence, but did not
revisit the question of whether an officer requesting participation in a field sobriety exercise must
warn of the potential admissibility of a refusal. 168 Vt. at 122, 716 A.2d at 828. In that case, the
trial court excluded evidence of the defendant’s refusal to perform a field sobriety exercise,
concluding that because the defendant had a right to refuse to comply with the officer’s request,
the refusal was inadmissible. This Court granted the State’s request for interlocutory appeal.
Citing Curavoo for the proposition that evidence of a motorist’s refusal to perform a sobriety test
is probative of guilt, and therefore relevant, we considered whether any rule of law would
nonetheless require exclusion of the evidence. Blouin, 168 Vt. at 121, 716 A.2d at 828. We
rejected the argument that introduction of a refusal to perform a field sobriety exercise violated
the defendant’s privilege against self-incrimination. Id. Relying on a United States Supreme
Court decision, we emphasized that the field exercise in question elicits a person’s physical,
rather than testimonial, response and therefore does not trigger the privilege against self
incrimination. Id. at 121-22, 716 A.2d at 828-29 (citing Pennsylvania v. Muniz, 496 U.S. 582,
602 (1990) for proposition that performance of horizontal gaze nystagmus test constitutes
“physical rather than testimonial evidence and thus does not violate privilege against self
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incrimination” (quotations omitted)).7 We concluded that in the absence of any statutory
language prohibiting introduction of the refusal evidence, the fact that a statute specifically
provided for admission of evidence of an individual’s refusal to submit to an evidentiary breath
test did not by implication mean that a refusal to submit to a field sobriety exercise is not
admissible. Id. at 122-23, 716 A.2 at 828. We noted that admission of the evidence was subject
to Vermont Rule of Evidence 403, but reaffirmed the absence of any across-the-board restriction
against admitting evidence of a refusal to engage in a field sobriety exercise. Id. at 123, 716
A.2d at 829.
I. Evidentiary Objections
¶ 14. With this background in mind, we first consider defendant’s arguments under the
Vermont Rules of Evidence. Defendant acknowledges we have held that refusal to participate in
standardized field sobriety tests is relevant to show consciousness of guilt, subject to a balancing
of probative value versus prejudicial effect pursuant to Rule 403. For several reasons, however,
she argues that the challenged evidence in this case is not probative, and that its admission is
unduly prejudicial. In particular, she argues that the exercise in question was not a standardized
field sobriety test, and that its significance, if any, was not supported by any evidence that the
exercise had scientific reliability. She further argues that there are a host of reasons other than
consciousness of guilt or impairment due to intoxication to explain her decision to stop the
7 It is this leap from the nature of the actual performance of the exercise as nontestimonial to the conclusion that a refusal to perform the exercise is nontestimonial that defendant, in a late-raised argument, asks us to revisit. Compare Blouin, 168 Vt. at 121-22, 716 A.2d at 828 with Opinion of the Justices to the Senate, 591 NE.2d 1073, 1078 (Mass. 1992) (explaining that conclusion that evidence of refusal to submit to test is nontestimonial does not necessarily follow from fact that test results themselves are nontestimonial, and concluding under state constitution that refusal evidence is testimonial because its relevance is based upon it being “reflective of the knowledge, understanding, and thought process of the accused”) and State v. Fish, 893 P.2d 1023, 1032 (Or. 1995) (en banc) (concluding that individual’s refusal to perform field sobriety tests is testimonial evidence under state constitution’s self-incrimination clause). See generally F. Whited, 1 Drinking/Driving Litigation: Criminal and Civil § 6:2 (2d. ed. 2015).
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exercise after five-to-eight seconds. She points to her age, general physical infirmity, and
physical deterioration. According to defendant, in light of the absence of any evidence
supporting the validity of the exercise in the first place, and the presence of many explanations
for her decision to stop the exercise, the evidence in question proved nothing, and its admission
was prejudicial because it suggested otherwise to the jury.
¶ 15. We review the trial court’s ruling admitting the testimony and videotape evidence
for abuse of discretion. State v. McCarthy, 2012 VT 34, ¶ 14, 191 Vt. 498, 48 A.3d 616 (“The
trial court's discretion to allow relevant but arguably prejudicial evidence is particularly broad
because Rule 403 provides for exclusion only when the danger of unfair prejudice substantially
outweighs the probative value. Unless the trial court either totally withheld its discretion or
exercised it ‘on clearly untenable or unreasonable grounds,’ the trial court's evidentiary ruling
will stand.” (citation omitted)).
¶ 16. We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the
evidence to show that defendant discontinued her participation in the exercise because: (1) the
evidence may have some probative value in showing consciousness of guilt, and (2) especially
given its instructions to the jury, the trial court could reasonably conclude that the prejudicial
effect of the evidence did not substantially outweigh its probative value.
¶ 17. Our conclusion as to relevance flows from our decision in Curavoo. Evidence is
relevant if it has “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the
determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the
evidence.” V.R.E. 401. In Curavoo we concluded that a refusal to perform such exercises may
demonstrate consciousness of guilt. 156 Vt. at 74-75, 587 A.2d at 964-65. The fact that
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defendant may have other explanations for her decision does not mean that the evidence does not
have some tendency to show consciousness of guilt.8
¶ 18. Likewise, we conclude that the trial court acted within its discretion in balancing
the probative value and prejudicial effect of the evidence. Rule 403 authorizes the court to
exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of
unfair prejudice. V.R.E. 403. Although the court did not specifically state that it was conducting
a balancing pursuant to Rule 403, the record reflects that that is exactly what it did. See State v.
Ovitt, 2005 VT 74, ¶ 9, 178 Vt. 605, 878 A.2d 314 (mem.) (“The trial judge does not need to
articulate the precise weights assigned to the probative value or prejudicial effect of evidence, or
specify why one outweighs the other.”). In the course of the argument on the motion to suppress,
the court not only noted the potential probative value of the evidence as recognized in Curavoo,
but it ascertained that the State would not be offering any opinion as to whether the exercise had
been successfully completed—one of defendant’s biggest concerns with respect to prejudice.
Moreover, over the State’s objection, the Court expressly instructed the jurors that they could
consider whether defendant refused to perform the tests but were not required to draw any
inference from evidence of a refusal. This instruction further mitigated the potential prejudice
identified by the defendant, and left defendant ample opportunity to advance alternative
explanations for the refusal. 8 We emphasize our focus on defendant’s termination of her participation in the exercise as the touchstone for determining the relevance of the evidence in question. The validity of the manner in which she briefly performed the exercise as a means to evaluate impairment would be a distinct concern if the officer had testified that her performance demonstrated impairment. He did not, and the list of factors that he cited to support his conclusion that defendant was impaired did not include the manner in which she briefly performed the one exercise she opted to start. On cross examination, he explained that the two things he assesses when someone is performing the exercise are the individual’s ability to estimate thirty seconds and the presence of eyelid tremors, neither of which, he acknowledged, was present here. In closing, the State argued that defendant’s stopping the exercise showed consciousness of guilt, but did not argue that the manner of her performance itself showed impairment. For these reasons, we consider only the inferences the jury may draw from the fact that defendant stopped the test.
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II. Constitutional Arguments
¶ 19. Defendant’s appeal raises a question that this Court has previously left
unresolved: whether the Vermont Constitution requires—as a prerequisite to use of the
individual’s refusal as evidence in court—that an officer advise an individual that refusal to
perform a field sobriety exercise may be admitted as evidence of consciousness of guilt.
¶ 20. Defendant’s arguments have shifted through the course of this litigation, and are
not entirely clear. In her brief, she suggests that as a matter of Fourth Amendment law, as well
as under Chapter 1, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution, an officer may not conduct field
sobriety exercises, which constitute a seizure, without a warrant absent exigent circumstances.
Thus, according to defendant, she had a right to be told that refusing to participate could be used
as evidence against her. She further argues that Chapter 1, Article 10 of the Vermont
Constitution, in contradistinction to the analogous compulsion clause of the Fifth Amendment to
the United States Constitution, prohibits the police from compelling her to give evidence against
herself, regardless of whether it is considered “testimonial” or not. Neither of these contentions
supports the argument that defendant was entitled to notice that her refusal to perform field
sobriety tests could be used as evidence against her.
¶ 21. Defendant’s arguments on these points are legal in nature, and thus we review the
trial court’s decision anew, without deference. State v. Ford, 2010 VT 39, ¶ 7, 188 Vt. 17, 998
A.2d 684.9
9 Although argument on the suppression motion included consideration of whether defendant was constitutionally entitled to notice that her refusal could be used as evidence, defendant did not identify the specific constitutional basis or bases for this argument below. We accordingly apply a plain error standard of review. See State v. Pelican, 160 Vt. 536, 538-39, 632 A.2d 24, 26 (1993) (stating that plain error will be found only where failure to recognize error would result in manifest injustice). However, because we resolve both arguments on the basis of our established case law, our analysis of these questions does not turn on the standard of review—plain error versus preserved error.
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¶ 22. We reject defendant’s Fourth Amendment argument. It is well established that
police may, without a warrant but upon reasonable suspicion, ask a driver to perform field
sobriety exercises. Defendant is correct that a seizure occurs when an officer requests an
individual to perform field dexterity tests to determine whether the individual should be
processed for DUI. State v. Gray, 150 Vt. 184, 190-91, 552 A.2d 1190, 1194 (1988). But we
have held that when supported by reasonable suspicion, such seizures are constitutional because
“the minimal level of intrusion occasioned by the requirement that [an individual] perform the
dexterity tests [is] clearly outweighed by the strong law enforcement interest in attempting to
keep a suspected drunk driver off the roads of this state.” Id., 150 Vt. at 191-92, 552 A.2d at
1195; see also State v. McGuigan, 2008 VT 111, ¶ 13, 184 Vt. 441, 965 A.2d 511 (holding that
administration of field-sobriety tests upon reasonable suspicion of DUI is reasonable for
purposes of Fourth Amendment). Defendant cites no authority in support of her suggestion that
because defendant was driving with a suspended license, and thus would not have been able to
drive away in any event, she could not be asked to perform field sobriety exercises without a
warrant. And defendant does not point to any other evidence that places this case outside of the
usual rule. In the absence of any support for defendant’s position, we apply our established
Fourth Amendment case law on the subject. Accordingly, to the extent defendant is challenging
the police officer’s administration of the field sobriety tests at all, the challenge has no basis in
the record or in law. To the extent defendant is arguing that the Fourth Amendment, and its
Vermont Constitution analog in Chapter 1, Article 11, nevertheless require some sort of warning
to an individual asked to perform field sobriety exercises, she makes no argument linking those
constitutional provisions to the claimed warning requirement.
¶ 23. We likewise reject defendant’s argument under Chapter 1, Article 10 of the
Vermont Constitution, but we emphasize that the strength of our holding on this point is limited
by the vagueness of defendant’s arguments on appeal.
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¶ 24. Defendant argues that the Vermont Constitution affords broader protection
against self-incrimination than the United States Constitution because Article 10 provides that a
person cannot be compelled to “give evidence against oneself,” whereas the Fifth Amendment
provides that a person cannot be compelled to be “a witness against himself.” She argues that
the protections against compelled self-incrimination in the Vermont Constitution accordingly
extend to nontestimonial evidence.10
¶ 25. This argument flies in the face of our established law. Further, it is not entirely
clear how the argument is logically connected to defendant’s position that she was entitled to a
warning that her refusal could be used as evidence at trial. With respect to the first point, we
have repeatedly rejected the argument that Article 10 provides broader protections than the Fifth
Amendment on account of the difference in language. See, e.g., State v. Rheaume, 2004 VT 35,
¶ 18, 176 Vt. 413, 853 A.2d 1259 (“Despite the historical recognition of the privilege against
self-incrimination and the language of Chapter I, Article 10, we have consistently held that, in its
application to adults, the Article 10 privilege against self-incrimination and that contained in the
Fifth Amendment are synonymous.”); State v. Ely, 167 Vt. 323, 330-31, 708 A.2d 1332, 1336
(1997) (stating that we have rejected “on a number of occasions” assertions that Article 10
provides broader rights than Fifth Amendment).
¶ 26. Moreover, it is not clear how applying Article 10 protections to nontestimonial
evidence, including, presumably, the field sobriety exercises themselves, would lead to a
requirement that police warn an individual that her refusal may be used as evidence in court.
The logic of defendant’s argument might support a conclusion that evidence of an individual’s
refusal to perform an exercise is inadmissible in court—an issue we do not revisit here.

Outcome: But defendant does not provide a logical connection between Article 10, as she understands it, and a requirement that an individual be warned of the consequences of a refusal before deciding whether to refuse a request to perform field sobriety exercises.

Affirmed.

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Defendant's Experts:

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