BISMARCK – Oral arguments are set Monday at the North Dakota Supreme Court in Bismarck regarding a ruling by a northeast North Dakota court.
The case, which is brought to the Supreme Court by the State of North Dakota, centers around an order entered by Judge Ted Sandberg in March suppressing a chemical breath test and subsequent results for Travis Bell. Bell stands accused of a count of criminal vehicular homicide and a separate count of criminal vehicular injury in connection with a June 4 crash near Grand Forks that killed a juvenile female.
The state is asking the state’s high court to reverse Sandberg’s order and further find that ‘Bell freely and voluntarily gave consent to the chemical testing and that the District Court’s finding he was coerced is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence presented.’
In a filing with the Court, Bell, through his attorneys, asks the court to consider ‘whether the district court erred when competent evidence establishes the Appellee’s “consent” was the product of law enforcement’s unlawful threat of additional criminal charges.”
The court will hear the case Monday at 1:30 p.m.
