Commonwealth of Kentucky v. James Bedway

Summary

The court held that Kentucky law gives a DUI suspect a statutory right to make reasonable efforts to contact and communicate with an attorney during the ten-to-fifteen-minute period before chemical testing. Although officers violated that right by failing to accommodate Bedway's request to contact his daughter for an attorney's number, suppression was not warranted because the right was statutory, Bedway submitted to testing, and the record showed neither deliberate disregard nor prejudice. Justice Noble, concurring in result only, agreed with the outcome but would have analyzed the suppression issue more directly through implied consent and the absence of actual prejudice.