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).
Filed under Arrest issues, Field sobriety testing, Intoxilyzer 5000 issues by on Jun 30th, 2010. 2 Comments. 
Joshua Topolsky of the Engaget blog reports that the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether the State of Minnesota and/or the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer 5000 machine must turn over the source code that operates the Intoxilyzer equipment. In discovery motions, the defense had demanded the source code but both the State of Minnesota and manufactgurer CMI corporation have refused to release the code.
Lower courts in Minnesota and elsewhere have dismissed charges in DUI cases because the source code was not released, although other courts have refused to dismiss cases on this basis. Now, it appears that the Minnesota Supreme Court will be making law on this subject – a hearing is scheduled for September 19th.
Has anyone had any success with the "source code" argument here in Georgia? If so, write us with the details.
Filed under Intoxilyzer 5000 issues, Pre-trial actions by on Sep 5th, 2007.
Defense lawyers frequently argue that tests used by the police to measure blood alcohol levels in women are flawed because most of these tests are calibrated using a "average" sized male and because there is some scientifice evidence that women metabolize alcohol differently than men. Scientific studies in both Italy and in Cananda suggest that there are additional differences between alcohol metabolism that raise even more questions about the validity of the tests and the testing equipment used by police.
One of the more interesting findings of the Canadian study suggests that birth control pills produce an enzyme that most Breathalyzer test machines will interpret as blood alcohol content. You can read more about this study in an article entitled "Do DUI Laws Discriminate Against Women?" If you use oral contraceptives, make sure to tell me so we can discuss whether this factor might be an element in your defense.
Filed under Intoxilyzer 5000 issues, Trial issues by on Aug 18th, 2006. 7 Comments.
