Appeals court rules Cape DWI case will proceed

Court proceedings for a Cape Girardeau man facing charges of driving while intoxicated will continue, now that the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals overturned a ruling on the conditions of his arrest.

The previous ruling voided the arrest of David Dienstbach Jr. by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper on a Cape Girardeau city street. Cape Girardeau County Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp suppressed the charges in a ruling that said the trooper did not have authority to make a traffic stop on a city street.

The appeals court reversed the ruling Tuesday in an opinion that touched on the definition of highway and the jurisdiction of the highway patrol.

Narrowing the definition of highway would constrain the patrol "to the point of rendering it virtually powerless," the opinion said.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said the ruling "would have been very damaging" if it had not been overturned.

"My position was, that would basically neuter the highway patrol," said Swingle, whose office filed the appeal. He said assistant prosecuting attorney Jack Koester argued the case in St. Louis on June 3.

With other rulings and statutes backing up the opinion, the appeals court wrote that troopers can arrest any person believed to have violated any state laws, which include misdemeanors and infractions.

On May 31, 2009, trooper Ron Eakins pulled over a truck for driving on the wrong side of the road near the intersection of Perry Avenue and New Madrid Street around 1:30 a.m., according to the opinion. Dienstbach was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, driving without a valid license, possession of liquor by a minor, failure to register a motor vehicle and failure to wear a seat belt.

The trooper reported signs of intoxication and conducted a field sobriety test before the arrest, according to court documents. Kamp's ruling had suppressed the evidence collected.

Dienstbach's attorney, Jeff Dix, said he was not surprised by the opinion, which affirmed the highway patrol has jurisdiction on all roads.

"I think they want the cops to have as much authority as they want them to have," he said.

Dix said he made the case that the trooper could not make a traffic stop for driving on the wrong side of the road because it was not a state law.

"We were arguing that this was wholly a city law," he said.

abusch@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, MO