DWI charge dismissed against former medical examiner in Boone

The Watauga district attorney has dismissed a DWI charge against the county’s former medical examiner despite the fact that Dr. Brent Hall’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

In a hearing in April, defense attorney Jay Vannoy argued that when deputies arrested Hall in 2010 they violated his Fourth Amendment rights prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure.

Superior Court Judge Gary Gavenus agreed, ruling that officers did not have reasonable suspicion to stop Hall. Gavenus suppressed as evidence all statements by Hall that night, any observations of the officers, field sobriety tests and chemical analysis of Hall’s breath.

“Without a legally justified stop and the subsequent evidence obtained, the state cannot proceed,” prosecutor Matt Rupp wrote in a dismissal notice filed Wednesday.

Hall, 54, was medical examiner in 2013 when three guests at the Best Western in Boone died of carbon monoxide poisoning. His investigation into those deaths has been criticized.

After Daryl and Shirley Jenkins died on April 16, 2013, Hall sent blood samples to the state lab for testing. The state found carbon monoxide. But the results were not made public until after 11-year-old Jeffrey Williams died June 8 in the same room.

The gas was traced to a swimming pool water heating system on the floor below.

Hall recently told the Observer that he has not drunk alcohol in more than four years. His blood alcohol level was 0.19 when he was arrested on the DWI charge in 2010. An officer said she pulled him over for speeding, but Hall testified that he was using his cruise control to drive the speed limit. The judge ruled for Hall.

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 2:23 PM with the headline "DWI charge dismissed against former medical examiner in Boone."