Alcohol testing, evidence, due process, Fourteenth Amendment, policy and procedure.

The state officials appeal a lower court's ruling on a question of evidence.. Police stopped Harold Stade under suspicion that he was driving under the influence of alcohol. Stade submitted to a an alcohol test and posted a blood alcohol content of .15%. Stade contended that police failed to fully advise him of his rights and informed that he could obtain a driver's license for work-related driving. Stade plead not guilty and motioned to suppress the results of his alcohol test.

A district court originally denied Stade's motion to suppress the test results but later reversed itself and granted the motion. State officials now appeal.

The state loses. The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine upheld the decision of the lower jurisdiction. The court rejected the state's assertion that the lower court could not reverse its earlier ruling. The court ruled that the lower court had not issued its final decision at the time it revised its original ruling. The court also ruled that police violated Stade's due process rights during the course of his arrest.