State v. Coburn

¶ 1. Defendant appeals his conviction for criminal refusal under 23 V.S.A. § 1201(b). The statute makes it a crime for a person suspected of driving under the influence to refuse a police officer’s reasonable request for a breath test if that person has a prior DUI conviction. Defendant argues that the standardized paragraph read by police to DUI suspects, warning them that refusing a breath test may be charged as a crime, is incomprehensible as a matter of law and therefore violates due process. Defendant also argues that, absent a comprehensible warning, the State failed to prove that the…