Police get search warrant to take man's blood

05:30 PM CDT on Saturday, May 24, 2008

By CHRIS HAWES / WFAA-TV

Chris Hawes reports

05/24/08

DALWORTHINGTON GARDENS -- Louis Hodge cooperated with the Dalworthington Gardens officer who pulled him over last August. He stood, walked, and allowed himself to be cuffed on command. But back at the station, there was one request Hodge denied: a blood draw.

"When Mr. Hodge realized that it wasn't going to be a doctor, nurse, chemist, or someone qualified in Texas to give blood, but it was going to be the police officer in this case, the police officer who arrested him. At that point he politely said no," said Mimi Coffey, attorney for Mr. Hodge.

What a police tape doesn't show is now the subject of a lawsuit, filed this week by attorney Mimi Coffey. The officer got a search warrant and took the blood anyway. Coffey contends that, under Texas law, a police officer cannot draw a suspect's blood.

Dalworthington Garden's Police Chief Bill Waybourn disagrees, saying his officers receive medical training as blood technicians. "Going to a nurse or a hospital would have been very difficult, and it’s a simple, simple, task medically speaking," said Chief Waybourn.

Coffee contends officers still don't have enough training, or experience, to perform the blood draws. It's now up to a Tarrant County District Court Judge to decide who is right.

The decision could have a larger effect. Chief Waybourn tells us he's fielded calls from departments around the state, wanting to start their own officer blood-draw programs.