Teen sues cop: You need a warrant to check my breath for booze

No search warrant. No breath test.

That's the gist of a lawsuit filed by a college-bound teenager from Grosse Ile Township, who claims a police officer unlawfully tried to subject her to a Breathalyzer test when he didn't have a search warrant.

She refused and got a ticket. The officer got hit with a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Grosse Ile High School senior Casey Guthrie, an honor student who is headed to Michigan State University in the fall, filed the lawsuit Monday contesting the constitutionality of warrantless Breathalyzer tests on minors.

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Specifically, the 17-year-old plaintiff  is challenging a local ordinance and state law that allow police officers to perform Breathalyzers on people 20 years or younger without a warrant. Casey claims this is a violation of the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches.

The lawsuit stems from an incident in May, when a police officer pulled over a car of teenagers in Grosse Ile Township and asked them take Breathalyzers to check whether they had been drinking. Casey, who was a passenger, refused to blow into the machine, so the officer wrote her a ticket under the ordinance, the lawsuit states.

"They have no right to do what they’re doing," Casey's lawyer, Mike Rataj, said of police officers who write tickets based on warrantless Breathalyzers. "It's a misdemeanor. It goes on a kid's record. In order for the police to do this, they gotta first get a search warrant. That's the bottom line."

"What's especially egregious," says Rataj, "is that police are intimidating teenagers into taking Breathalyzers and telling them, 'You need to prove your innocence.' That’s not the way the criminal justice system works."

Casey "has never been in trouble with the law and has no criminal history of any kind," her lawsuit states, claiming "her rights were violated when she was forced to submit to a (Breathalyzer test) in order to prove her innocence."

Grosse Ile Township Supervisor Brian Loftus declined comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, noting he hadn't seen it. But he defended the township ordinance, which allows police who have "reasonable cause to believe a person less than 21" has consumed liquor to request a Breathalyzer.

"There is no benefit to underage drinking or drug use. We have this ordinance to protect both minors and the community at large," Loftus said.

Loftus also defended Detective Kenneth Pelland, who is also a named defendant in the lawsuit. He's the officer who wrote Casey the ticket.

"Detective Ken Pelland is a very experienced police officer. He runs our D.A.R.E. program. He is one of the founders of sobriety court. I have every confidence in Detective Pelland’s reasonable enforcement of our township ordinances," Loftus said. "I’m going to stand with Detective Pelland on this until I’m convinced otherwise."

Under Michigan's Minor in Possession law, it is a civil infraction for a person under 21 years old to refuse to take a breath test when asked to do so by a police officer. The fine is $100. Offenders also are ordered to participate in alcohol awareness programs and take random Breathalyzer tests.

Casey, who has a 3.75 grade point average, argues this is unlawful.

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Her lawsuit isn't novel.

Over the past decade in Michigan, judges have struck down warrantless Breathalyzer tests three times, most recently in 2007, when U.S. District  Judge David Lawson struck down a state law that allowed police to force pedestrians under the age of 21 to take a Breathalyzer without first obtaining a search warrant.

In a 32-page opinion, Lawson concluded the state law violated the Fourth Amendment. But his ruling does not apply to drivers of a motor vehicle.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two women, ages 18 and 19, who had attended high school graduation parties and were pressured into taking breath tests, even though neither had been drinking, records show. In one case, local police showed up at the 18-year-old's house at 4 a.m., woke up her family and demanded that she take a breath test, noting her refusal to do so would be considered unlawful.

The teenager took the test, which registered a .00% blood-alcohol level, records show.

Lawson heard a similar case in 2003, when he struck down a Bay City Breathalyzer ordinance. Following that decision, the  American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sent letters or e-mails to 425 city, village and university attorneys advising them to urge their local law enforcement agencies to stop forcing minors to take unconstitutional Breathalyzer tests.

But if Casey's lawsuit is any indication, the tests keep coming.

"This has already been dealt with," said Rataj, who wants his client's ticket dismissed, and a ruling to "make cops get search warrants before they get kids to blow."

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com