High Court Allows Suppression of Blood Evidence in DUI Case, Upholds Jury’s Fraud Findings against Bank

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The state Supreme Court has affirmed that blood evidence collected from a man arrested for driving under the influence should be suppressed because the man didn't understand his rights.

The high court in an opinion released Thursday shot down the state's appeal.

A Rapid City officer arrested Eric Medicine for DUI in 2014. The officer read a scripted Rapid City DUI card to Medicine that the court determined to have coercive language.

The opinion affirmed a lower court's decision that when combined with Medicine's arrest and lack of knowledge he could refuse the blood test, the consent was involuntary.

The department says it stopped using the card later that year.

The court previously reversed the conviction of a panhandler who argued that his Rapid City arresting officer had no reasonable suspicion to frisk him.

Also, the South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a jury's fraud findings against a bank that struck down more than $400,000 of an elderly couple's mortgage debt.

The high court in a ruling released Thursday also reinstated $20,000 in damages.

Lee Schoenbeck is an attorney for plaintiffs Stanley and Rose Marie Stabler. He says it's unusual for bankers to actively defraud consumers and says he's notified state and federal regulators.

The opinion says the case centered on a 2004 transaction related to $650,000 in debt that John Beyers, president of First State Bank of Roscoe, got the Stablers to approve as part of "an elaborate scheme to defraud" them.

A jury found $439,100 of that debt was procured by fraud.

An attorney for Beyers didn't immediately return a message requesting comment.

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