A Sarasota County judge has tossed 7 DUI cases because police failed to inspect a repaired Intoxilyzer 8000 alcohol breath analysis machine. The ruling is significant because it will also impact hundreds of other DUI cases in which the repaired machine was used. Prosecutors won't be able to tell jurors about a defendant's blood alcohol content. Drivers are considered impaired if their blood-alcohol content, or BAC, is more than 0.08 percent. Drivers blow into a tube and the Intoxilyzer 8000 analyzes their breath to determine a BAC.
The seven defendants had BAC levels as high as 0.23 which is nearly three times over the legal limit.
According to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, "but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement rules say a repaired Intoxilyzer 8000 has to be inspected before it can be used to collect evidence against a driver. This machine, number 1346, had a problem with its dry gas regulator, which is needed for the control tests before and after the driver's breath test. Without the dry gas regulator, the machine will not work. FDLE replaced the dry gas regulator on March 5, but did not conduct an inspection. Because of that, the breath tests violated the state's implied consent law, which requires licensed drivers to consent to a breath test if stopped under suspicion of DUI, County Judge Phyllis Galen ruled."
Leave a comment