BARNSTABLE – The Cape and Island’s District Attorney’s Office has suspended the admission into evidence of drunk driving breathalyzer tests after tests were found to have faulty readings.
“Until we are absolutely confident that we have identified the entire universe of cases that may have been impacted, we are suspending the admission into evidence of breath tests,” Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe said he was notified in March by the Office of Alcohol Testing that there was an issue with certain breathalyzers and that six cases on the Cape and Islands were potentially involved.
Of the six cases, one is on Cape Cod and five are on Martha’s Vineyard. “We are dealing with all those cases and did so right away,” O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe’s office has had several meetings with the lab that handles the tests, one by teleconference, one last Wednesday in Boston and another conference call yesterday. After the meeting last week, O’Keefe and several other district attorneys took the position of suspension of using the breath tests as evidence.
“That’s done out of an abundance of caution,” he said.
He said he has told local police that the test should continue to be given.
O’Keefe said he is awaiting further information from the Executive Office of Public Safety before deciding how to proceed.
“Once we understand completely the problem, we will then make the appropriate decision about whether or not to lift the band about introducing them or continuing it,” he said.
He said, so far, human error is thought to be the problem in properly calibrating the machines, O’Keefe said. “We want to be as confident as we can before we make a further pronouncement about how these tests will be used in court,” he said.
O’Keefe said the breathalyzer device is “a sophisticated machine” that is used all over the commonwealth. “I don’t think there’s a problem with the machine itself,” he said. The computer that is part of the machine allows easy access to see which cases have been affected by the problem.
Once that is done, he said, “We will then take the appropriate steps to afford those people an opportunity to have their conviction, if that is the final result of their case, overturned by way of, for example, a motion for a new trial,” he said.
O’Keefe said, “It’s troubling that something like this happens, but any machine that is operated by people are occasionally going to have problems.”
One of the six cases on the Cape and Islands it was caught before the test was used as evidence by the assistant district attorney. “So that’s a good thing,” O’Keefe said.
