Gikas

Alarmed by the death and destruction that drunk drivers cruelly perpetrate upon our highways, the Legislature has empowered the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to promptly suspend the drivers’ licenses of those who drive while intoxicated. We are asked to decide whether a determination in a criminal prosecution that a defendant had been *845 illegally arrested for driving under the influence precludes relitigation of the same question in the DMV’s administrative proceeding to suspend the license. We conclude it does not.

I. Facts

In the early morning hours of July 20, 1990, California Highway Patrol Officer Kenneth Jolly arrested appellant, Nicholas Gikas, for driving while under the influence of alcohol. A blood test showed that appellant’s blood-alcohol level was 0.10 percent. Officer Jolly served appellant with an “administrative per se order of suspension,” giving appellant a 45-day driving license, but notifying him that his license would be suspended after that time because of the results of the blood test.

Appellant moved to suppress evidence in the criminal proceeding. Officer Jolly and a defense investigator testified at the hearing. The municipal court…

I agree with society’s need to stem drunk driving. Although the majority’s description of drunk drivers’ mental state as cruel is questionable rhetoric—it is more likely to be stuporous at the time of arrest and indifferent to the consequences beforehand—there is no doubt that the effects of drunk driving are cruel indeed.

Nevertheless, I dissent. The majority’s reasoning cannot be squared with principles of statutory construction or issue preclusion, i.e., collateral estoppel. The Legislature—not this court—must prescribe the result the majority reach. The rub, however, is that the Legislature evidently has indicated that it does not desire the majority’s result. It did so by removing from Vehicle Code section 13353.2 (hereafter section 13353.2) the very language the majority now read into that section, and replacing it with language to contrary effect.

I.

Subdivision (e) of section 13353.2 specifies rules of preclusion for contests in which a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) hearing occurs before criminal court proceedings, and not the converse, as in the case before us.

As finally enacted, section 13353.2, subdivision (e), provides, in relevant part: “The determination of…

I concur in Justice Mosk’s dissenting opinion. I write separately to express my view that the result reached by the majority is *867 also prohibited by Penal Code section 1538.5, subdivision (d) (hereafter section 1538.5(d)). 1

Section 1538.5 provides the exclusive procedure in this state for a criminal defendant to seek suppression of evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the federal Constitution or article I, section 13 of the state Constitution. (See, e.g., In re Lance W. (1985) 37 Cal.3d 873, 896 [ 210 Cal.Rptr. 631 , 694 P.2d 744 ].) 2 Since Proposition 8 added article I, section 28, subdivision (d) to our state charter, however, a court may only exclude evidence from a state criminal proceeding if exclusion is mandated by the federal exclusionary rule applicable to evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment. (In re Lance W., supra, 37 Cal.3d at p. 896 .) The trial court found that the evidence excluded from the prosecutor’s case-in-chief at the defendant’s criminal trial in this case met this standard.

Section 1538.5(d) sets forth the effect of a ruling in defendant’s favor on a section 1538.5 motion to suppress. This statutory provision…

When a motorist, charged with driving under the influence of alcohol (Veh. Code, § 23152), 1 successfully moves the trial court to suppress the evidence supporting the charge on the ground that he or she was illegally detained by the arresting officer, is the Department of Motor Vehicles (hereafter also referred to as DMV) collaterally estopped 2 from relitigating the legality of the detention in a license suspension hearing held after the court’s dismissal of the criminal charge? The majority holds that the doctrine of collateral estoppel does not apply, and that the DMV may, after a court of law’s adjudication, relitigate, in an administrative proceeding, the legality of the detention. Justices Mosk and Panelli disagree; so do I. But the reasons for my disagreement differ from those articulated by my dissenting colleagues.

To reach the conclusion that the Legislature intended to permit the use of collateral estoppel at DMV hearings, Justice Mosk’s dissenting opinion (in which Justice Panelli concurs) looks to the Legislature’s omission of certain language from the final draft of the statutory scheme that regulates the manner in which a motorist’s license may be suspended for…

ARABIAN.J.

Alarmed by the death and destruction that drunk drivers cruelly perpetrate upon our highways, the Legislature has empowered the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to promptly suspend the drivers' licenses of those who drive while intoxicated. We are asked to decide whether a determination in a criminal prosecution that a defendant had been illegally arrested for driving under the influence precludes relitigation of the same question in the DMV's administrative proceeding to suspend the license. We conclude it does not.

In the early morning hours of July 20, 1990, California Highway Patrol Officer Kenneth Jolly arrested appellant, Nicholas Gikas, for driving while under the influence of alcohol. A blood test showed that appellant's blood-alcohol level was 0.10 percent. Officer Jolly served appellant with an "administrative per se order of suspension," giving appellant a 45-day driving license, but notifying him that his license would be suspended after that time because of the results of the blood test.

Appellant moved to suppress evidence in the criminal proceeding. Officer Jolly and a defense investigator testified at the hearing. The municipal court ruled…