When can a police officer withdraw blood from the blood of a suspect under the exigent circumstances theory?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Ritschel v. City of Fountain Valley, 137 Cal.App.4th 107, 40 Cal.Rptr.3d 48 (Cal. App. 2006):

Nonetheless, the court upheld the blood withdrawal on an exigent circumstances theory because of the rapid elimination of alcohol from a person's blood. "The officer in the present case, however, might reasonably have believed that he was confronted with an emergency, in which the delay necessary to obtain a warrant, under the circumstances, threatened `the destruction of evidence,' [citation].... Given these special facts, we conclude that the attempt to secure evidence of blood-alcohol content in this case was an appropriate incident to petitioner's arrest." (Schmerber v. California, supra, 384 U.S. at pp. 770-771, 86 S.Ct. 1826.)

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