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WEBVTT TESTSrt.THOUSANDS OF CASES ARE INVOLVED.JULI FOR YEARS THEY HAVEARGUED BREATHALYZER IS USED BYPOLICE DEPARTMENTS AROUND THECOMMONWEALrtTH WERE NOT RELIABLEBECAUS THEY WERE NOT BEINGCALIBRATED CORRECTLY.THE BAKER ADMINISTRATIONLAUNCHEDrt AN INTERNALINVESTIGATION INTO THE STATEOFFICE ACCUSED OF WITHHOLDINGDOCUMENTS THAT COULD HAVEVERIFIED THOSE INACCURACIES.rt IT IS MY BELIEF THIS IS NOTFAR OFF FROM WH HAPPENED,PEOPLE CONVICTED OF USING DRUGSWHEN THE LAB WAS SUSPECT.JULIE:rt THIS TEST WAS ROLLED OUTIN 2011.THE COMPANY ITSELF DETERMINESTHE SETTINGS WERE INCORRECT INALrtL BUT TWO OF THE NEARLY 400MACHINES EXAMINED.PROPER PROTOCOL FOR CALIBRATINGMACHINES WAS NOT WRITTEN UNTILTHREE YEARrtS AGO, AND SOMEQUESTION WHETHER THE OFFICE OFALCOHOL TESTING NEW SOME IF NOTMANY WERE ERRONEOUS.>>rt IT APPEARS THEY TURNED OVER100% OF ALL OF THE SUCCESSFULCALIBRATIONS, AND WE DID NOT GETANY OF THE FAILEDrt CALIBRATIONS.THAT LENDS ITSELF TO THEMISTAKE.WE DO NOT KNOW.JULIE: HAS MANY AS 58,000 DRUNKDRIVING CASESrt DATING BACK SIXYEARS AGO COULD BE IN JEOPARDY.IMAGINE YOU THOUGHT YOU HADCANCER.YOU GO TO A DOCTOR, THEY SAY YOUrtHAVE CANCER.YOU GO TO ANOTHER, YOU HAVECANCER.A THIRD DR. SAYS YOU HAVECANCER.A FOURTH SAYS YOU ARE OK.HOW DO YOU FEEL? rtJULIE: ONCE MORE THEY WEREMILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND AREARCHAIC.rtTHE OFFICE TASKED WITHOVERSEEING ALL OF THIS NEEDSBETTER INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT.>> OURrt LITIGATION DOES ONETHING.THAT MAKES THIS A FAIR AND MORETRANSPARENT PROCESS FOR THECITIZEN.rtWHAT WAS HAPPENING BEFORE WASNOT FAIR.JULI AS OF JUST LAST WEEK,

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The Baker administration is launching an internal investigation into a state crime lab office that is accused of withholding hundreds of pages of records showing problems with the machine used by police all over the state to measure a driver’s level of intoxication.In a letter dated Thursday and obtained by 5 Investigates, Public Safety secretary Dan Bennett outlined the review he is ordering into the Office of Alcohol Testing, including reviewing documents, interviewing employees and hiring a retired judge to oversee evidence decisions at the Office of Alcohol Testing and the larger State Police Crime Laboratory.“I have concluded that a number of documents that should have been provided to the prosecuting attorneys, so that they could independently determine whether any of the documents were material, relevant, or exculpatory, were not produced,” Bennett wrote.The review stems for a years-long legal battle in the case of Commonwealth vs. Ananias and others that now threatens as many as 50,000 drunken driving cases, according to defense attorney Joseph Bernard, of Springfield.“It validates exactly what we’ve been trying to say,” Bernard said of the announcement of the internal investigation. Legal challenges to the tests were filed after the state disclosed that Drager's Alcotest 9510 machines, which were rolled out in 2011 were not properly set up by the manufacturer. The company later found that the settings were incorrect in all but two of the 392 machines that were examined. Bernard had been seeking calibration test records for the Draeger Alcotest 9510, the machine used by police departments all over the state to administer breath tests to drivers suspected of being intoxicated. Records initially produced showed only successful calibrations of the machines, Bernard said.But after persistent digging, with the help of forensic expert Thomas Workman, the Office of Alcohol Testing eventually released records of numerous failed calibrations, records that would be normally considered exculpatory.“There’s no way they did this by accident,” Bernard said, adding that he did not believe prosecutors had any knowledge that the records existed before they were turned over. “This is not fair what the Office of Alcohol Testing did to citizens.”