Posted on 06/10/2010 2:34:26 AM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
Nearly 400 people were convicted of driving while intoxicated in the District since fall 2008 based on inaccurate results from breath test machines, and half of them went to jail, city officials said Wednesday.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles said the machines were improperly adjusted by city police. The jailed defendants generally served at least five days, he said.
Nickles's office has begun notifying the drivers, a move that immediately triggered at least one lawsuit against the District and could lead to requests for expungements, new trials and even deeper skepticism about the integrity of testing. Challenging test results is at the heart of drunken-driving cases, and this revelation will only strengthen those challenges, defense attorneys said.
The District's badly calibrated equipment would show a driver's blood-alcohol content to be about 20 percent higher than it actually was, Nickles said. All 10 of the breath test machines used by District police were wrong, he said. The problem occurred when the officer in charge of maintaining the machines improperly set the baseline alcohol concentration levels, Nickles said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Trust the ‘professionals’.
Hmm. I didn’t realize these could be so poorly calibrated. I’m glad they mentioned the problem, but it makes me wonder how many other places have had a similar problem and never found out or never told others when they did.
If I was recently drinking, I’d be erroring on the side of a blood test or not driving at all.
Not cool.
Another bailout? This time for members of Congress.
I wonder how many of them were involved?
Maybe they’ll look into the speed cameras’ calibration next.
I hope the District can make it right. Besides the jail time there is the huge increase in insurance premiums, loss of license (and use of taxis), sometimes loss of employment ...
So the police use a false charge to get a victim to plead guilty to something he didn't do. I guess the question is, why is anyone surprised? This is SOP.
Our local Undersheriff, who had no business touching the breathalyzer, falsified the verification records. When it came to light (not to public knowledge, though) the charges were being thrown out.
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