JUSTICES LET TWO SUE IRVINE POLICE

Law: Supreme Court reinstates case filed by men who say officers illegally
took blood samples for DUI tests.

The U.S. Supreme Court gave two Orange County men the green light to
sue Irvine police on the grounds that officers illegally obtained
blood samples from the men after arresting them on suspicion of
drunken driving.

Mauricio Baez Fernandez and Jeffrey Capler accuse police of forcing
them to undergo blood tests to measure alcohol levels, though they
requested breath tests instead. The men could not be reached for comment.

The court's decision is "a vindication of individual liberty and
stands for the proposition that no one is above the law, not even the
police," said attorney Barry T. Simons, who filed the federal suit in
1996 and is seeking to have it certified as a class-action suit.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages and a court order banning
the alleged abuse of blood tests, says police violated state law and
the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable
search and seizure.

A federal judge dismissed the suit when it was filed, but it was
reinstated in May by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The city
appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, which denied the appeal Monday.

Attorney Jeffrey Wertheimer, who represents the city of Irvine, said
the court's decision would not change police DUI policies because
officers always read a list of testing options and allow suspects to
pick one. When they don't choose, he said, police usually select blood
tests. Police followed that policy in the cases brought to the Supreme
Court, he said

People suspected of drunken driving must allow police to measure their
blood-alcohol content.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady