Miller v. State, Department of Public Safety, Division of Motor Vehicles

OPINION

MOORE, Justice.

This appeal is from a civil driver’s license revocation proceeding that followed a criminal case in which the defendant pleaded no contest to the charge of driving while intoxicated (DWI). The question for us is whether a ruling against the defendant in a suppression hearing in the criminal case has collateral estoppel effect in the subsequent civil proceeding.

I

In criminal proceedings for DWI, Hilton Miller, the defendant, moved the court to suppress the State’s evidence on the ground that the police officer’s stop of Miller’s vehicle was illegal. After a hearing, the…