One way to make sure that there is no evidence of a breath machine’s inaccuracy and unreliability is to simply make sure there is no record of its false results and failures…even if it means innocent people are convicted. The main thing is to maintain faith in these devices, right?



Fudged Breathalyzer Tests Questions DUI Arrests

Inspector Turned Machines Off When They Appeared About To Fail Throwing Into Doubt Thousands Of Drunk Driving Citations

Miami, FL. Oct. 16 – Defense attorneys were in a Miami courtroom on Thursday seeking a judge’s order to inspect the hard drives of every breathalyzer machine used in Miami-Dade county.



Before Judge Jose L. Fernandez, attorney Michael Catalano said, "We’re interested to find why she was unplugging breath machines so that she could cover up mistakes and not tell anybody."



This comes after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement fired the examiner who was responsible for testing all the DUI machines, alleging she failed to follow protocol with the inspections.

Defense attorneys contend it is a scandal that puts suspicion over thousands of DUI cases in Monroe, Broward and Miami Dade.



"The number of cases involved could be as many as 10,000 here in Miami-Dade County," attorney Richard Hersch explained to CBS4 reporter Gary Nelson. "The inspector who has been discharged here was on duty for about 18 months before she was discharged."



In a "notice of dismissal", the FDLE accuses analyst Sandra Veiga of having encouraged police agencies to abort tests on Intoxilyzer 8000 machines that were giving questionable results.



"What the inspector was doing," Hersch said, "was unplugging the machine if the inspection was failing, then plugging it back in; that prevented the machines from reporting the malfunctions to Tallahassee."



Do you really think this only happens in Miami?