Gikas v. Zolin

Opinion

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 *845illegally 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,…