United States v. Gerald Van Griffin
Opinion
Opinion
Noonan, J.
Gerald Van Griffin was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, a petty offense under 36 C.F.R. § 4.6 (1986). He appeals. We affirm his conviction.
BACKGROUND
On March 23, 1986 Gerald Van Griffin was observed by Park Ranger Daniel Ol-trogge driving in reverse for approximately one-half mile with the lid of his trunk up, obstructing his rear vision. Oltrogge stopped Griffin at 3:50 p.m. at a checkpoint set up to stop all vehicles leaving this side of the park. Oltrogge detected a “moderate odor” of some alcoholic beverage on Griffin’s breath. According to Oltrogge, Griffin’s speech also seemed to be slurred and his eyes were bloodshot. The ranger asked him whether he had been drinking and he replied that he had had seven or eight beers. The ranger then asked him to take a series of field sobriety tests and Griffin agreed.
In the first of these tests, Griffin was asked to recite the alphabet. He reached m but then skipped to t and continued to z. In the second test he was asked to count backward from 100. He reached 84 then went back to 89 and then back to 91. In the third test he was asked to count his fingers. He failed to do so…