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I see she wasn't too intoxicated to understand that you never give the police the evidence they use to convict you.

In Wisconsin you do not have the right to refuse to take any test. Legally, the officer could hold you down and forcibly draw a blood sample from your veins. In practice this rarely happens except where an accident is involved which caused death or serious bodily injury.

If you refuse to take a test, your driver's license is automatically suspended for one year. Also, in your trial, the jury will be told that you refused to take the test and the judge will instruct the jury that they can consider your refusal as evidence of your guilt.

Drunk driving penalties have become very severe in Wisconsin in the past few years. For a first offense, the maximum possible penalties the court could impose are 6 months in the county jail, $1,000 fine plus up to an additional $1,950 in penalty assessments, 6 months driver's license suspension, and your car impounded for 30 days.

Second, third and fourth offenses within 7 years are punished by increasingly more harsh penalties. For third and fourth convictions, your license must be revoked for 3 and 4 years respectively. A fourth offense can even be prosecuted against you as a felony carrying a maximum term of 3 years in state prison along with your car being ordered sold and the proceeds going to the state.

Let's not watch the Peg. We know she'll go unpunished, and in some ways this elevates her in Democrat circles as a "made democrat". Once you've managed to beat the system of laws that you, the legislator have brought to bare on the peasants, you've made it and become celebrated in Clintonista fashion. Your mere presence every day in the public's business is one day that all democrat politicians see it as in your face nose thumbing at conservatives.

We need to now follow the future of the poor SOB cop who found the bitch in a ditch. They have a toll free number to call to the director of the state's fleet of cars 24 hours a day. The cop is then instructed what to do. The director is a no nonsense hard as nails guy. He may have just loved getting that call at midnight!

Legally, the officer could hold you down and forcibly draw a blood sample from your veins.

Which doesn't change anything I said.

And a court case to determine the constitutionality of that practice would be interesting.

You are correct. Wisconsin has a statute called "Implied Consent" which means that by operating a motor vehicle in Wisconsin, you have implicitly given your consent to a breath, blood or urine test if arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants or controlled substances.

She was obviously given a PBT (preliminary breath test, not admissible in court, by the way) at the scene and that's where the blood alcohol level was determined. Refusal to take the test that is offered by the arresting agency is an automatic suspension of your driver's license, but is often pled away for a guilty plea on the DWI charge, unless the law has changed in the last 4 years.

In any event, her refusal to take the test is a mockery of the law she took an oath to enforce. That act, combined with driving while intoxicated in a state owned vehicle would result in the termination of employment of a law enforcement officer upon finding of guilt. It will be very interesting to follow what ensues in this case.

If she was serious about accepting responsibility, she would have followed the law and taken the test.

Also, the forceful retrieval of blood for testing purposes is, as you stated, usually reserved for circumstances where death or great bodily injury occurred or when the arrestee has had several previous DWI convictions.