Fatal DUI conviction holds in Montgomery County 4th Amendment case

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The Maryland Supreme Court last week upheld a man’s convictions for a fatal drunk-driving crash, ruling that Montgomery County Police did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights when they detained him.

The court unanimously ruled May 26 that it was not unreasonable for police to hold Davinder Singh in a cruiser for more than an hour while they investigated the November 2022 crash near an elementary school in Gaithersburg, which caused the deaths of two people.

The “investigatory detention” of Singh did not become a “de facto arrest,” for which the officers would need probable cause, the court ruled. He was not formally apprehended until an officer opened the door to the police car, said she smelled alcohol and initiated sobriety tests.

“While law enforcement certainly detained Mr. Singh, he nevertheless was not subjected to an unreasonable detention that violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment,” Justice Angela Eaves wrote.

The Maryland public defender’s office, which represented Singh, did not respond to a request for comment. The Maryland attorney general’s office, which represented the state, declined to comment.

Ana Margarita Ortiz, 70, and Miguel Antonio Ortiz, 65, a married couple, were walking to vote at Fields Road Elementary School on Election Day when they were hit by Singh’s car, according to police. Both had immigrated to the United States from El Salvador when they were teenagers.

(The opinion refers to the husband as Angel Ortiz. An online obituary and a police new release say his name was Miguel.)

Singh was convicted of vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol and of causing the death of a vulnerable individual while operating a motor vehicle. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, plus fines and probation upon release.

His convictions were based on the results of the field sobriety tests and a breath test officers administered after removing him from the car. He did not pass any of the standard field tests and was arrested at 9:13 a.m. The breath test revealed an alcohol concentration of 0.24, three times the legal limit, at 10:15 a.m., about three hours after the crash.

Singh filed a motion to suppress evidence, arguing the breath test happened past the two-hour window within which police may administer a test after apprehending a suspect. He argued he was illegally arrested without probable cause when he was placed in the cruiser at 7:43 a.m.

The Montgomery County Circuit Court denied his motion, ruling that he was apprehended not when he was put in the car but at 8:51 a.m., when he was taken out and began the sobriety tests.

The Appellate Court of Maryland upheld the conviction, and the state’s high court agreed.

“Mr. Singh would have us engage in the exact type of judicial oversight of police investigation that we previously have rejected,” Eaves wrote.

“Indeed,” she wrote, “there are myriad reasons why law enforcement might place an individual into a police cruiser, a few of which are to physically protect the individual, prevent the individual from having to witness traumatic scenes, protect other members of the public, and remove the individual from a potential crime scene to permit investigation and preservation of evidence.”