On Saturday, August 15, 1998, at 10:20 p.m., a police officer discovered Cox sleeping or unconscious. He was sitting in the driver’s seat behind the wheel of a vehicle. The vehicle was in the parking lot of a gas station. Cox was the only person in or around the vehicle. The keys to the vehicle were in the ignition, and the motor was running. The officer saw the shift lever of Cox’s vehicle in “park.” He knocked on the window of the vehicle.
Cox was awaken by the knock, and he lowered the window of the vehicle. Cox has had a strong odor of an intoxicating beverage on his breath. His eyes were very bloodshot and watery, and he appeared disoriented. The officer noticed a glass of brown liquid between his legs. At the officer’s request, Cox turned off the ignition, exited the vehicle, and tried but failed sobriety tests. The officer arrested him for driving while intoxicated. After his Miranda warnings were read to him, Cox answered “Yes” to the form question, “Were you operating the vehicle?”. A subsequent breath test revealed a blood alcohol content of .18 of one percent.
The Director suspended Cox’s driving privileges pursuant to section 302.505, RSMo Supp. 1997. Cox appealed the suspension of his drivers license under this statute all the way to the supreme court of Missouri.
302.505, RSMo Supp. 1997
The statute reads in relevant part;
the Director shall suspend a driver’s license if the arresting officer had probable cause to believe the person was driving a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of at least ten hundredths (.10) of one percent.
The meaning of driving is “physically driving or operating a motor vehicle.”