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Jeremy Duda
Daily Herald
The fifth amendment gives people the right not to talk to the police if they're arrested. It gives them the right to not testify against themselves in court. But unfortunately for a Springville man, it doesn't give people the right to refuse a sobriety test.
Fourth District Judge Claudia Laycock ruled against the use of the fifth amendment to refuse a sobriety test on Wednesday at a pretrial hearing for Robert Vandyke, whose trial on a felony DUI charge begins on April 7. Vandyke's defense attorney, Shelden Carter, filed a motion several weeks ago asking that prosecutors be prohibited from mentioning Vandyke's refusal to take several sobriety tests during the trial.
Laycock cited a previous case from Sandy, saying the fifth amendment applies only to speech. Utah law grants people the right to refuse a sobriety test, but anyone who refuses can be stripped of their driver's license.
Vandyke, a 42-year-old Springville resident, was pulled over in Spanish Fork in September by a police officer who was responding to a report of a drunk driver near a sports park. The officer said Vandyke smelled of alcohol and refused a sobriety test.
Vandyke is charged with felony DUI and driving on an alcohol-restricted license. The DUI is a third-degree felony because he has been convicted of drunk driving offenses five times in the past 10 years. He spent five years in prison for killing a West Valley City woman in a drunken wreck in 2000. |
