Two more min­utes.  If the Geor­gia police offi­cer had waited two more min­utes we would not be here.  That is because a good breath test requires a full twenty minute wait­ing period.  These are not my rules,  They are the government’s rules on how to pro­vide a breath test that you may rely on.  It is you who must be out­raged at this behav­ior. It is not fair for the gov­ern­ment to take short cuts with one law to enforce another. Because, when you take a short cut, you may not be get­ting cor­rect sam­ples.  And, in this case, bad results will result in a ter­ri­ble outcome.

Robert Smith is falsely charged with DUI in Savan­nah, Geor­gia.  Robert is a hard-working man.  He’s got a fam­ily, friends, and a busy life. But, when the offi­cer saw him he expected to see a drunk and so he did. The pros­e­cu­tor sees a defen­dant. But, Robert and I want you to see him. He’s a cit­i­zen accused, not a sta­tis­tic. And when you do, you will see an inno­cent man.

I am prepar­ing Robert’s case for a DUI jury trial in Savan­nah, Geor­gia.  Here are some of the things that are wrong with the Geor­gia DUI Breath machines.

The Geor­gia DUI breath test appa­ra­tus (Intox­i­lyzer 5000) can give a high read­ing because of many things.

The Geor­gia DUI breath test appa­ra­tus (Intox­i­lyzer 5000) can give a high read­ing because of many things.  It will detect things other than alco­hol.  And these sub­stances will be reg­is­tered as if they were alco­hol — even if there is no alco­hol.  Inter­fer­rents are any­thing not alco­hol that can cause a read­ing on the machine. There are a lot. Is the cop’s black­berry going off when you blow? Are you receiv­ing a text mes­sage while you blow?  Pep­per­mints, pizza, bread, and Sprite are a few of the many things that will trig­ger the appa­ra­tus as if they were alco­hol.  See Why Breath­a­lyz­ers Don’t Mea­sure Alco­hol.   See Dri­ving Under the Influ­ence of.…Bread?  Also, watch a video from a sem­i­nar that I went to in Atlanta by A. W. Jones, the world’s lead­ing alco­hol expert on this flawed sci­en­tific evi­dence.

Reg­u­la­tions require the police offi­cer to fol­low pro­to­col. Did he?

Because you are inno­cent, the pros­e­cu­tion must prove that at your test this equip­ment was in work­ing order, prop­erly main­tained, and test admin­is­tered cor­rect accord­ing to protocol.

Resid­ual mouth alco­hol detec­tor can be tricked.

Stud­ies have shown that the aver­age per­son may have over 100 dif­fer­ent chem­i­cal com­pounds on his breath at any given time. Sci­en­tists have found that 70 to 80% of all com­pounds on the human breath con­tain the methyl group. The methyl group is com­mon. Quite com­mon. It is a part of things like propane, butane, iso­pro­phyl alco­hol, methane, ethane, ethly chlo­ride, acetic acid, buta­di­ene, dimethylether, dimethy­lamine, dimethyl­hy­drazine — to name but a very few of the many.  And ethyl alco­hol as well — the com­pound found in liquor.

The appa­ra­tus detects alco­hol by shoot­ing infared light through the breath sam­ple.  And the more alco­hol in the sam­ple, the more infared light or energy is absorbed, result­ing in higher read­ings. It is the ethyl group inside of the ethyl alco­hol com­pound that absorbs the energy — not the ethyl alco­hol com­pound itself. So if there are any of these com­monly encoun­tered com­pounds that con­tain methyl groups the Intox­i­lyzer will read them as ethyl alco­hol. If there are 10 or 15 such com­pounds in the sam­ple, the appa­ra­tus will add them all up and then show them as ethyl alco­hol. This appa­ra­tus detects any com­pound con­tain­ing the methyl group as if it was ethyl alco­hol — even if it is not.

Ace­tone will trig­ger a high false reading

Ace­tone is a com­pound con­tain­ing the methyl group. The appa­ra­tus will read this ace­tone and reg­is­ter it as ethyl alco­hol. Ace­tone is com­monly found on the breath. Dia­bet­ics usu­ally have ace­tone on their breath. Any­one who is on a diet may have ace­tone on his or her breath. Even ordi­nary peo­ple under ordi­nary cir­cum­stances can have ace­tone on their breath.

An expert on blood-alcohol analy­sis will tell you that if you had 525 micro­grams per liter of ace­tone in your breath, this would affect the read­ing on the Intox­i­lyzer. It would raise it by .03%, so that a true .08 would read .11.