By Joe Gerrety, Journal and Courier

A felony drunken driving case against a Greater Lafayette hotel partner that has been pending since April 2002 is on hold again.

A Tippecanoe County judge has granted permission for lawyers representing Gregg S. Murphy, 42, of West Lafayette, to challenge before the Indiana Court of Appeals the constitutionality of a sobriety checkpoint where Murphy was arrested.

Judge Mike Morrissey of Tippecanoe Superior Court 6 ruled last month that the sobriety checkpoint where West Lafayette police arrested Murphy complied with existing case law and did not violate Murphy's Fourth Amendment protection against illegal searches and seizures.

However, Morrissey ruled Wednesday, "this issue involves a substantial question of law, the early determination of which will promote a more orderly disposition of the case."

If the appeals court disagrees with Morrissey's December ruling, the case would have to be dismissed.

But deputy prosecutor Jody Donaldson doesn't expect that to happen. He said he's happy to have the Court of Appeals review the issue.

"I believe wholeheartedly that we'll be successful on appeal because of the actions of the West Lafayette Police Department," Donaldson said. "They did everything according to case law, and there's a very thorough record."

The record the appeals court will review comes from a daylong bench trial before Morrissey last month in which Murphy's attorneys, Nick Deets and Matt Sandy, sought suppression of all of the evidence resulting from the traffic stop.

Deets said Wednesday that Lafayette attorney John Antalis will handle the appeal because Deets has a heavy trial schedule in the next several months.

He said the appeal will cover the same issues as the December bench trial -- how precisely police must follow a 2002 Indiana Supreme Court ruling in Indiana vs. Gerschoffer, which sets out six conditions which sobriety checkpoints should comply with to be legal.

"I think the trial courts need some guidance on how to interpret that (Gerschoffer ruling)," Deets said. The appeal could take several months, during which the case at the trial court level will be on hold.

Murphy, co-owner of University Inn in West Lafayette and Holiday Inn Select City Centre in downtown Lafayette, was stopped about 10:30 p.m. on April 18, 2002, at a sobriety checkpoint on Sagamore Parkway at Nighthawk Drive.

After police smelled alcohol and saw a half-empty bottle of vodka on the floor of his car, they administered a portable breath test and later a Datamaster breath test at police headquarters. The test showed Murphy had a blood-alcohol content of 0.19 percent, more than twice Indiana's legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Murphy has three previous drunken driving arrests dating back to 1996, two of which have resulted in convictions.

In the pending case, he is charged with a Class D felony. If convicted, he could be sentenced to six months to three years in jail.