Sammamish, Wash. — A court case involving a driver who smashed an SUV through her house and killed two family members is delayed. The reason: An appeals court ruling in an unrelated case that questions the legality of blood-draws in impaired driving cases.
In May, Carol Fedigan, 68, was behind the wheel of her SUV when it plowed right through her lakefront house in Sammamish. Her husband was killed. Her son-in-law died later at the hospital.
Investigators suspected Fedigan was impaired by alcohol or drugs, and used a standard King County form to request a warrant for a blood draw. But the language in the warrant only requested that blood be drawn, not tested.
Police agencies rapidly changed their warrants after a state appeals court ruling last month in an unrelated DUI case. That ruling called the testing of blood a second search that needs to be specifically authorized by a judge.
The King County prosecutor plans to file a motion as soon as Friday asking the appeals court to reconsider the ruling. Until they do that, prosecutors are reluctant to talk about the impact.
Now that warrant forms have been rewritten, the ruling is not expected to affect future cases. The real impact could be on those that are pending. DUI defense attorney Joe Campagna called the impact "moderate."
But another DUI defense attorney, Jon Fox, predicted the impact will be "huge" on cases in the system. He said the second blood sample is typically held for the defense to conduct its own test and not having it available could be a problem for prosecutors.
Toxicology results already take weeks, even months. In the Sammamish case, investigators now expect to wait even longer.
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