An Oakland County Circuit Court Judge recently suppressed a DataMaster .20 evidentiary breath test result on a felony drunk driving case. The judge suppressed the breath test because the police officer who administered the test failed to follow the laws and rules intended to assure that breath tests are reliable. Because of the judge’s ruling, …
Yes, in certain circumstances, a breath test result in a drunk driving case can be suppressed for failure to follow all existing calibration requirements. Therefore, it is important for your drunk driving defense lawyer to confirm that all existing requirements for calibration and calibration checks have been followed. All police departments in Michigan use the DataMaster …
Michigan’s rules and regulations for breath testing are set forth by law and by administrative rule. There are also a variety of rules and regulations contained in the DataMaster Evidential Breath Test Manual. Together these rules and regulations are intended to assure that a breath test result is reliable and admissible in a court of …
Even before you are arrested, the police in Michigan can often conduct a search of your breath using a portable or preliminary breath test device. The purpose of these tests is to determine how much alcohol is in your body. However, these portable breath testers have significant limitations relative to the reliability of the results …
A New Jersey Sergeant was recently suspended and charged with records tampering for failing to properly calibrate the state’s alcohol breath testing devices. This could potentially call into question as many as 20,000 DUI cases in the state. But this problem is not limited only to New Jersey. If you are arrested for drunk driving …
Michigan drivers arrested or convicted of drunk driving might be ordered to have a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device (BAIID) installed on their car. Some judges will require a BAIID to be installed as a condition of bond. Other times, a BAIID can be a condition of probation. With a high BAC case (test result …
Nearly all drunk driving arrests in Michigan consist of four parts; (1) some sort of bad driving leading to a traffic stop, (2) roadside or “field sobriety tests,” (3) roadside breath test for alcohol, or saliva test for drugs, and; (4) second breath or blood test to confirm roadside test. Regarding roadside field sobriety testing, …
The Michigan administrative rules for breath testing require that the breath test operator in a drunk driving case observe the suspect continuously for 15 minutes prior to administering the breath test. The reason the 15 minute rule exists is because it takes about 15 minutes for mouth alcohol to evaporate. If mouth alcohol exists then …
Michigan exclusively uses the DataMaster to measure the breath alcohol of all persons arrested for drunk driving. The DataMaster operates on the scientifically accepted principle of absorption of infrared energy. Michigan recently put into service a new DataMaster called the DataMaster DMT. The analytical portion of the DMT is essentially identical to the analytical portion of BAC …
The vast majority of the approximately 35,000 citizens stopped for drunk driving each year in Michigan are subjected to breath testing in order to provide the State with evidence that they are “OWI” (operating while intoxicated). Only a very small number of cases involve a scientific challenge to the DataMaster breath test result, and when …
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