Summary 2013 WY 59

Summary of Decision May 13, 2013

Justice Davis delivered the opinion for the Court. Affirmed.

Case Name: KARA WALTERS v. STATE OF WYOMING ex rel. WYOMING DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Docket Number: S-12-0213

URL: http://www.courts.state.wy.us/Opinions.aspx

Appeal from the District Court of Albany County, the Honorable Jeffrey A. Donnell, Judge

Representing Appellant: R. Michael Vang of Fleener & Vang LLC, Laramie, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee: Gregory A. Phillips, Wyoming Attorney General; Robin Sessions Cooley, Deputy Attorney General; Douglas J. Moench, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Michael T. Kahler, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

Date of Decision: May 13, 2013

Facts: Appellant Kara Walters was charged with driving while under the influence (DWUI) in Laramie, Wyoming. The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) suspended her driver’s license, and she requested an evidentiary hearing before the Office of Administrative Hearing (OAH). An OAH hearing examiner upheld the suspension against a challenge that she had not been properly advised as to implied consent. She then sought review of the administrative suspension in district court, where she also raised a number of constitutional challenges to a municipal criminal ordinance in addition to the claim that she had not been properly advised under the implied consent statute. The district court concluded that the constitutional issues before it had not and could not have been raised in the administrative hearing and that it therefore lacked jurisdiction to consider them, and that Walters had been properly advised as to implied consent.

Issues: 1. Did the arresting officer properly advise Ms. Walters as to implied consent as required by Wyoming Statute § 31-6-102(a)(ii) when she was under a municipal criminal ordinance?

2. Does this Court have jurisdiction to consider challenges to a municipal ordinance that were not and could not have been raised in a license suspension hearing?

Holdings: The hearing examiner correctly determined that Ms. Walters was properly advised as required by statute. Her other claims were not and could not have been presented in a license suspension proceeding. Affirmed.

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court

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