People v. Wuckert, 2015 IL App (2d) 150058 (December 2015). Episode 124 (Duration 3:46)

Trial court's suppression of hospital drug test is reversed because 625 ILCS 5/11-501.4 trumps hospital policy that the results should not be used for legal purposes.

Facts

This was a one car accident.

Police find a drug pipe in the car and it smells like cannabis. Trial judge suppressed the state blood because there was no probable cause for the arrest.

At The Hospital

However, the hospital told defendant that their lab tests could only be used for medical reasons and not for any legal purposes. Relying, in part, on this hospital policy the trial judge suppressed the hospital drug tests.

Reversed

However, the reviewing court said that  625 ILCS 11-501.4 trumps the hospital policy.

The fact that the trial court was perturbed that defendant consented to the test under a misimpression created by the hospital personnel, however unfortunate, is not a legally sound basis to suppress the test results.

Here, because the test results here were procured by a nurse who was not acting as a State agent, neither the test nor the hospital’s disclosure of the results to the police, as the statute required, violated defendant’s rights.

Civil In Nature

Additionally, no fourth amendment analysis was appropriate here because these blood results were a completely civil process. 

Even assuming the arrest was improper, these results were coming in because no state actor was involved in their procurement.