Judges: Wash. Breathalyzer tests flimsy

[Gunny]

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
48 minutes ago

SEATTLE - The State Patrol's toxicology lab has had so many ethical lapses and made so many scientific mistakes in recent years that alcohol breath test results should not be admitted at trial, a court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling by a three-member panel of King County District Court will likely make it easier for defendants in pending county cases to beat drunken driving charges and for those previously convicted on breath test evidence to appeal.

"Simply stated, without the reliable evidence that a correctly functioning breath test instrument can provide, the discovery of the truth in DUI cases suffers," the judges wrote. "The innocent may be wrongly convicted, and the guilty may go free."

Prosecutors can still try to win convictions based on other evidence, such as erratic driving and field sobriety tests.

The ruling by Judges David Steiner, Darrell Phillipson and Mark Chow is not binding on the county's other 18 district judges but is expected to be highly influential, said Presiding Judge Barbara Linde.

The court handles about 5,000 drunken driving cases a year, and the vast majority plead guilty or accept deferred prosecution.

The ruling cited problems with the patrol's toxicology lab, including the false certification of solutions used to verify breath tests, the improper rejection of data, mistakenly switched data and reliance on software that miscalculated data. Prosecutors can try to get breath tests admitted in cases after they have proven the lab's practices have been cleaned up, the judges said.

"The judges are saying, 'If you wanna play 'CSI,' you've got to make sure you can do it the way 'CSI' does it,'" defense attorney Ted Vosk said. "The science they did at the lab was so sloppy you can have no confidence in any of the results that were obtained."

more ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080131/ap_on_re_us/drunken_driving_washington

The defense lawyers in Washington are going to have a field day with this.

 

[Angel Heart]

Oh give it time and it will make it's way through all the rest. Courts in other states will refer back to this case and the data from it.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Oh give it time and it will make it's way through all the rest. Courts in other states will refer back to this case and the data from it.

Wait, let me get this right. You do not mind that the State is so sloppy and slipshod that it basicly lies in court about test results?

 

[Angel Heart]

Oh I was just commenting on the Washington part. I think it's screwed that something that effects so many lies has so many questions around it and allowed to stand up in court.