State v. Richard B. Wilkens, 2005 WI App 36
For Wilkens: Waring R. Fincke
Issue/Holding:
¶14. In Wisconsin, the general standard for admissibility is very low. Generally, evidence need only be relevant to be admissible. See Wis. Stat. § 904.02; State v. Eugenio, 219 Wis. 2d 391, 411, 579 N.W.2d 642 (1998) (“All relevant evidence is admissible unless otherwise provided by law.”). Evidence is relevant when it is probative of any material fact. Wis. Stat. § 904.01 (Evidence is relevant if it has “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.”). Even Wilkens does not argue that Onken’s observations of his performance on the FSTs utterly lacked probative value. Certainly, when an officer-particularly one with sixteen years of law enforcement experience and who makes an average of four OWI arrests each month-determines that a driver fails not one but three FSTs, it is more probable that the person has an illegal blood alcohol concentration than if the officer determined he or she passed the tests. We cannot conclude that the trial court erred in considering the evidence.
