Grant County v. Kenneth Jay Raney, Sr., 2018AP700, 12/6/18, District 4, (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity
A jury convicted Raney of IWI, 1st offense. On appeal, he represented himself, which caused the court of appeals a lot of frustration. Opinion, ¶2. It rejected most of his arguments as being forfeited, undeveloped, or contradicted by the record. His one preserved argument–whether the field sobriety test results established probable cause–failed on the merits.
¶16 Third, Raney makes a series of assertions that I will interpret, in his favor, as an argument that matches the single argument that his trial counsel made at the suppression hearing. Specifically, Raney challenges the validity of the field sobriety test in establishing probable cause to arrest. The problem for Raney on this issue is that I review the circuit court’s findings of historical fact under the clearly erroneous standard, see State v. Hajicek, 2001 WI 3, ¶12, 240 Wis. 2d 349, 620 N.W.2d 781 (2001), and Raney fails to provide a basis to conclude that the circuit court clearly erred in making the findings that I summarize above. Indeed, the photographs that Raney took and that were admitted into evidence at the suppression hearing, which he now apparently intends to argue undermine the circuit court’s findings, in fact support the circuit court’s findings.
