I have a defense attorney who is asking me to agree to his discovery motion in a breath test DWI case. To paraphrase, he's asking for (1) the testing logs, records or intoxilyzer test cards for the 25 tests run before the defendant's, and (2) copies of documents evidencing any repair or modification of the intoxilyzer for the 2 weeks prior to the defendant's test. He claims it's only about 5 pages of documents, he gets them "all the time", and other prosecutors always agree to it. I've seen discovery motions in breath test cases, but I've never been asked to sign an agreed motion. Opinions?

Your intoxilyzer supervisor can tell you how much paper that is. They run routine checks, so as far that goes, it may not be much. As long as the machine was working, this can only help you. And if it's not working, you need to know that as well.

As far as the results for 25 other people? He would not be entitled to receive that--most of it would be information relating to 25 other defendants--not discoverable.

I have had one of these requests back in my misdemeanor days...if I can find my response I will e-mail it to you.

thanks suzanne...if you find that, i would definitely appreciate having it!

Sent you a couple things. Let me know if you don't get them.

Check your listed email....

sorry, but i just realized my listed e-mail is incorrect...my correct e-mail is bellmar21@hotmail.com...I would certainly appreciate it if you guys could re-send...thanks again!

Resent, hopefully that did it.

Suzanne, could you please send the same stuff to me too?

THanks!

i have had that same issue come up; Suzanne could i get a copy of that also? thanks!

Tried to send to you both, if you don't get it, please let me know and I will re-send.

THanks Suzanne.

Who told these guys to file this????

could you send me a copy of the response also?

Thanks,

jth

You should see the discovery motion I just got on a Blood Test DWI! Just some of the highlights: Requested Item 15 - the amount of blood taken from defendant, Item 21 - a detailed description of the method used to preserve the blood specimen including name, composition, amount and date of production of any preservative used, Item 25 - the names of any articles, books or treatises relied upon or considered authority by the person who extracted the blood specimen on the topic of taking blood specimens, Item 26 - the name of the supervisor of the person who extracted the blood, Item 47 - the name of the person who prepared the potassium dichromate solution and the date that said solution was prepared, Item 53 - the type of pipette utilized in the alcohol concentration analysis, Item 65 - . . .

Shpikula v. State, 68 S.W.3d 212, 222 (Tex. App.�Houston [1st Dist.] 2002).

I sent out an e-mail, but just so everybody has it, the best case I found was this above site. That will give you a place to start, I'm sure there's been more on this topic since then.....And we thought blood draws were simpler! I am getting ready to try a good old fashioned blow case and am looking forward to it--just for a change of pace from the blood draw issues with consent / emergency room paperwork (or lack thereof) / vials / mathematical computations!

What is the date of the book they got this out of? Potassium dichromate solution was used in blood alcohol testing methodology way back in the days before labs had gas chromatographs. I've been a forensic toxicologist for almost 30 years and have just read about the method...never done it. Time to get a new defending DUI book!