Court Error Motion for Reconsideration.

• Date: 17 June 2020

Byline: Derek Hawkins

WI Supreme Court

Case Name: City of Cedarburg v. Ries B. Hansen

Case No.: 2020 WI 45

Focus: Court Error Motion for Reconsideration

The City of Cedarburg moves the court to reconsider 30 of its decision in the above-captioned case, issued February 11, 2020. See Wis. Stat. 809.64 (2019-20). The City contends the court overlooked State v. Braunschweig, 2018 WI 113, 384 Wis. 2d 742, 921 N.W.2d 199, wherein the court unanimously decided that the proper burden of proof the State must satisfy to establish a defendant's prior OWI convictions is a preponderance of the evidence. The City requests only that the court modify 30 of our decision in City of Cedarburg v. Hansen to reflect the burden of proof announced in Braunschweig.

We grant the City's motion for reconsideration to modify 30. Braunschweig established the proper burden of proof to be a preponderance of the evidence. It noted that "in some PAC cases" under Wis. Stat. 346.63, in which the text of the statute specifically makes "the predicate prior [] an element of the offense," the State must satisfy the higher, beyond a reasonable doubt burden. Braunschweig, 384 Wis. 2d 742, 36 & n.18. However, the court held that "the...