Your Shield Against Criminal Prosecution
When someone is pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence in Massachusetts, the police may ask for a chemical test, usually a breath, blood, or urine test. Refusing this test can lead to serious consequences, both legally and personally. Understanding...
Legally, one doesn’t have a “right” to his/her driver’s license. In Massachusetts, a persons’s right to operate a motor vehicle is a privilege, and continued possession of this privilege is conditioned on obeying the legislature’s laws that are aimed at regulating the state’s roadways and keeping them safe. Because of this, under the Massachusetts statutory scheme, a person who drives on…
District Attorneys across Massachusetts this week have suspended the use of Breath Alcohol Testing (BAT) evidence in drunk driving or Operating Under the Influence cases at trial or in plea negotiations. This action follows recent claims by defense attorneys that, in prior litigation challenging the reliability of the Alcotest 9510 BAT machine, prosecutors withheld key evidence, specifically, hundred of records…
In response to the challenge to alcohol breath test results involving the Alcotest 9510, a Massachusetts judge has recently ruled that the BAT results for yielded by this machine for the period between June 2012 and September 2014 are unreliable and inadmissible at trial. Results yielded after September 14, 2014, he further ruled, are admissible. In Massachusetts, it is estimated…
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that technicians who performed the certification tests on Breathalyzer Test Machines are not needed to testify at trial in Massachusetts Drunk Driving Cases. In the case of Commonwealth v. Zoanne Zeininger, the state’s highest court held that certification tests of Breathalyzer Machines are admissible in evidence as business records, and are not testimonial…
Police officials in Philadelphia recently acknowledged that miscalibrated Breathalyzer machines had compromised almost 1,200 DUI Charges for the previous year, calling into question most, if not all, of those drunk driving convictions where a Breathalyzer Test was administered. As a result, the District Attorney’s Offices in Philadelphia will initiate a complete review of all DUI / OUI convictions from September…
Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in a case where the defendant challenged his Massachusetts Drunk Driving / DUI Crimes conviction. The issue now before the Court concerns DUI / Drunk cases where the government seeks to introduce evidence of the Breathalyzer Test and where the prosecutor fails to call as a witness the person…