September 2008 - Posts

• Police Roadblocks in the New America

  When the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision validated DUI "sobriety checkpoints" (aka police roadblocks), Chief Justice Rehnquist admitted that they were a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.   However, he wrote in Michigan v. Sitz, the "minimal intrusion" into citizens’ protected right to privacy was "outweighed" by the government’s interest in [...] Posted Sep 30 2008, 03:29 PM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog

• DUI…or Anemic?

  I’ve commented repeatedly in the past about the inaccuracy and unreliability of breath-testing devices used in DUI investigations. This is due to a wide range of factors, including inherent design defects (see, for example, my previous post “Why Breathalyzers Don’t Measure Alcohol”); ineffective calibration and maintenance of the machines; improper administration of the test; radio frequncy [...] Posted Sep 26 2008, 10:47 AM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog

• Do DUI Laws Discriminate Against Women?

  If you are arrested for DUI and a breath test shows a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08% or higher, you are guilty. It does not matter, of course, whether you are a man or a women: the laws do not discriminate. Maybe they should… Researchers at the University School of Medicine in Trieste, Italy, found [...] Posted Sep 22 2008, 10:49 AM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog

• Perspectives and Priorities

  Now if MADD were truly interested in saving lives on our highways rather than in eradicating the “evils of alcohol”… Study: Texting More Dangerous Than DUI   LONDON, Sept. 19 (UPI) — Young drivers who send text messages while operating a motor vehicle are at more risk than those who drive drunk, a British study released Thursday finds. The study [...] Posted Sep 19 2008, 08:55 AM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog

• Who Cares About Drunks?

  For many years now I’ve written and lectured extensively on drunk driving litigation – on the science of blood and breath alcohol analysis, the flaws in breathalyzers, the ineffectiveness of field sobriety testing. In recent years, however, my focus has increasingly shifted to the gradual erosion of constitutional rights in DUI cases. So who cares about [...] Posted Sep 17 2008, 12:44 PM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog

• Judge Orders Secrets of Breath Machine Revealed

  As I’ve written in past posts (Secret Breathalyzer Software Still Secret), defense attorneys have repeatedly tried to gain access to the secret software used to run the various models of breath-testing machines.  As the geeks say, "garbage in, garbage out":  erroneous or badly written software will result in erroneous test results — and thousands of citizens wrongfully convicted [...] Posted Sep 13 2008, 12:59 PM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog

• Immaculate Intoxication

  Can alcohol be created by the human body itself — without any drinking? Apparently so. In an interesting scientific article, two physicians at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore reported that they detected the odor of beer in three of their patients. This was in an isolated hospital setting; there was no access to alcoholic beverages. The [...] Posted Sep 11 2008, 07:53 AM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog

• Ready-Made DUI Arrest Reports

  An increasing number of police officers are using pre-written arrest reports in drunk driving cases. In other words, they are writing out a batch of phony reports — including driving symptoms, slurred speech, failed field sobriety tests, admissions of drinking — and then just filling in the names, dates, etc., when they actually make an [...] Posted Sep 05 2008, 07:55 AM by DUI BLOG Filed under: Duiblog