Ah, the Breathalyzer machine. I’ve discussed Breathalyzers here before. Breathalyzer manufacturers, police officers and district attorneys would love for everyone to believe that Breathalyzers are accurate, infallible machines. But of course they are not. And when your life and liberty are on the line after a DUI arrest involving a breath test, the least the prosecution can do is offer evidence that is scientifically accurate. But frequently, that is not the case, as a recent breath test investigation in Palo Alto uncovered:
“Police used the faulty Alco-Sensor V devices from the end of February through mid-December, said police Lt. Sandra Brown. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday there were problems with the devices, which also were used in San Jose,” Mercury News reports. “We won’t know for sure until we’ve reviewed all these cases,” said Supervising Deputy District Attorney James Gibbons-Shapiro.
Problems were first discovered with the Breathalyzers in April 2010. ”I think it was a training issue,” Brown said, Mercury News reports. ”An officer was showing a new officer the (Breathalyzers) and got a reading.”
Prosecutors will review the Palo Alto and San Jose breath test cases within a month. Defense attorneys are calling on the district attorney’s office to dismiss any Palo Alto DUI cases that relied on the Alco-Sensor V Breathalyzer results.
Palo Alto’s independent police auditor, Michael Gennaco, said he didn’t see any “evidence that there was misconduct in the traditional sense,” but the department can still learn from the experience. ”The immediate lesson is you’ve got to check your equipment, you’ve got to check it frequently,” Gennaco said.
Another lesson is that if you’ve been arrested for DUI, make sure that you speak with a DUI defense attorney. Far too many people simply give up…a big mistake.