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Berkemer v. McCarty
The Highway Stop
The facts
On March 31, 1980, an Ohio State Highway Patrol officer saw the Defendant's car weaving in and out of a lane on Interstate 270 and, after following it for about two miles, pulled it over. When the Defendant got out, the officer noticed he had trouble standing, and the Defendant could not complete a roadside balancing test without falling. The officer asked whether he had been drinking, and the Defendant said he had consumed two beers and smoked several marijuana joints a short time earlier; the officer also noted that his speech was slurred and hard to understand. At no point during this roadside exchange had the Defendant been told he had a right to remain silent or given any other warnings. Only after this exchange did the officer formally arrest him and take him to the Franklin County jail, where an intoxilyzer test found no alcohol in his system and the officer resumed questioning him for an alcohol-influence report. At issue is whether the questions put to the Defendant at the roadside stop, before that formal arrest, required Miranda warnings.
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