Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Arrested for DUI
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charles Bannister has been arrested for DUI. There is an interesting twist to this story.
According to the arresting officer, Mr. Bannister failed three field tests for sobriety, his restaurant bill showed purchases of 5 Bud Light beers + a half pitcher of beer, and he reportedly stated to the officer “I can’t believe this is all over one or two beers.” Mr. Bannister was then given a breath test – which registered 0.00!
A blood test was later administered and the results have not been made public.
Assuming that Mr. Bannister did consume some alcohol, the breath test (we can assume this was a Intoxilyzer), the equipment used was clearly faulty. In this case, the faulty equipment benefits the defendant but how often might a faulty breath test machine come back with a false positive?
The point here is not to pass judgment on Mr. Bannister or the integrity of Gwinnett County law enforcement. You can take from this episode that breath testing equipment can be very unreliable. A blood test offers a much more accurate reading of your blood alcohol levels (although there are grounds to contest these numbers as well).
Matt:
July 1st, 2010 at 12:59 am
How many tests do you have to submit to under IC? I know implied consent reads any and all so can law enforcement request a blood test if they don’t agree with the Intox5000 results?
The article states that he was meeting other men (unlikely he drank all that beer himself) so if Bannister had two beers over 2 hours, you could get a negative.
Mitch:
October 15th, 2010 at 12:06 am
The part of this that no one has pointed out, is that according to reports, it was well over 2 hrs before Mr. Bannister was given the breath test at the county jail.
Lets agree that Mr. Bannister did fail the FST’s. And that he had just finished his last of “two beers” 15 minutes prior to being pulled over. 2 beers consumed in a one hour time frame, will most likely put some one of Mr. Bannister’s size over the .080 limit. However, if you are not consuming any more alcohol, then your body is naturally “burning it off”. After two hours, (for most average men) your body would have “burnt off” the level of alcohol consumed from two beers.
So basically, to argue that the officer was wrong in placing Mr. Bannister under arrest based off of the FST’s would most likely be wrong. To argue that the Intox5000 malfunctioned….would most likely be wrong. More than likely, this arresting Deputy waited too long to administer the Intox and Mr. Bannister’s own body did what it was supposed to do and “burnt off” the effects of the alcohol in his blood stream, due only to time. Time is the only thing that makes you sober.