Seattle NPR station KPLU, 88.5 FM just aired a news piece on the state of breath alcohol concentration (BAC) testing in King County. BAC results have not been admissible in DUI cases since last year because of the many documented errors and misconduct by the Washignton State Patrol Toxicology Lab (see State v. Amach). King County Prosecutors have brought action to allow BAC reuslts to be admitted once again.
In King County, breath tests that measure blood alcohol level are not admissible as evidence in drunk driving cases. That’s true in many other counties as well. This all started two years ago when problems surfaced with the Washington State Toxicology lab. Now there’s a move to once again allow juries to consider blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg admits it’s been a challenge.
“We have to prove the case on the bad driving, field sobriety tests, on observations that the officer made of an individual and sometimes, if there’s not enough of those things, we don’t have a case that we can go forward on,” he said. He says that will mean more drunk drivers out on the road.
Satterberg insists the state’s toxicology lab, which was discredited for its sloppy handling of DUI evidence in the past, has cleaned up its act. A new director has conducted an audit and the breath testers have been recalibrated and received international accreditation.
“So all of the practices that the court found deficient have been taken care of,” he said.
Defense attorneys say not so fast. They acknowledge improvements have been made at the lab, but say they still question its independence.
“Part of the problem we have with forensic science all across the board is that it’s too closely associated with law enforcement,” says Kevin Trombold, a Seattle DUI defense attorney.
Trombold believes the state toxicology lab operates more as an arm of prosecutors than as an objective scientific enterprise . Prosecutor Satterberg disputes that.
Both sides will have an opportunity to make their case in the next few weeks when a three judge panel in King County considers a request to once again allow blood alcohol tests in court.
King county prosecutes 4000 drunk driving cases every year. © Copyright 2010, KPLU
The crux of the State’s argument is that the lab has received international accredidation. This is true, but only for the process of creating and validating the “simulator sloutions” used to calibrate the Datamaster machine. What the Prosecution fails to point out is that the lab, run by the Washington State Patrol, has not received accredidation in the breath testing process they employ. Thus, the reliability of any results of a BAC test in the State of Washington are still in question.
