Court says DUI ruling was in error

BOISE – Idaho’s Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling that blocked a driver’s license suspension for a former Kootenai County court official after a misdemeanor DUI arrest in 2011.

The Idaho Transportation Department appealed the decision about the license suspension for Marina Kalani-Keegan, former Kootenai County juvenile drug court coordinator. A hearing officer had ruled that the administrative license suspension was invalid because the arresting officer’s original signature wasn’t on his sworn statement, but it was; ITD sought reconsideration with a statement from a notary that the signature was original, but the hearing officer declined to change the ruling, as did a district court.

In a unanimous opinion written by Court of Appeals Judge John Melanson, the appellate court found that not only was the ruling about the original signature incorrect, an original signature from the officer wasn’t legally required, and a copy would have sufficed. Melanson wrote, “The district court erred in demanding something more than that which the law provides.”

Kalani-Keegan was convicted of misdemeanor driving under the influence in the June 2011 incident and received a withheld judgment.