Advising a Defendant Who Does Not Speak English of His Implied Consent Rights

I almost missed this one. While I regularly monitor the published opinions of our state’s appellate courts, I generally skip the unpublished decisions. So I initially overlooked the court of appeals’ opinion in State v. Martinez, ___ S.E.2d ___ (N.C. App. Jan. 5, 2016) (first released as unpublished, but later published), which addresses a recurring question in DWI cases: Must a defendant who does not speak English be advised of statutory implied consent rights in a language that he or she understands? No, said the court of appeals. Facts. The defendant in Martinez was stopped after he attempted to evade a checkpoint. When the officer approached the car the defendant was driving, he smelled alcohol. The officer asked the defendant to get out of his car. He complied, but stumbled while doing so. The officer then asked the defendant to perform field sobriety tests. It became clear to the officer at that time that the defendant “did not fully understand English.” The officer called his dispatcher, who spoke Spanish, and put him on speakerphone so that he could translate the officer’s commands into Spanish for the field sobriety tests. The officer eventually arrested the defendant for DWI. Before conducting a chemical test of the defendant’s breath, the officer read the defendant his implied consent rights in English and gave him a Spanish version of the rights in writing. The officer again called his dispatcher and placed him on the phone to answer the defendant’s questions in the event he asked any. The defendant [...]