Submitted by New Jersey DWI Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark.
NEW JERSEY SUPREME COURT DECISION
The New Jersey Supreme Court has ordered all NJ DWI cases in which a defendant was found guilty or plead guilty as a result of the introduction of the Alcotest machine 7110 that used a specific calibration temperature thermometer shall be thrown out and the guilty plea erased!!! You will be receiving a notice in them mail from the NJ Attorney General’s Office as per this court’s decision. IF you were not happy with your attorney who plead you guilty, or you did not have an attorney and want to fight your reversed guilty plea at this time; CALL HARK & HARK. Look us up at Criminalcivillawyer.com. Also read our reviews from GOOGLE and AVVO to decide if you want to hire Hark & Hark.
In many of these cases the municipal prosecutors will try to have you plead guilty again based on the officer’s observations at the police department or the Field Sobriety tests conducted on the side of the road. There are many defenses to these tests! We have the knowledge expertise and skill to represent you in these types of cases ALL OVER THE STATE OF NJ.
Here is a summary of exactly what the court did:
Defendant moved to withdraw her guilty plea to DUI after she learned that the temperature probe involved in the case was not certified properly pursuant to NJ law because the officer involved in the process improperly lied on the certification forms on thousands of these tests! Defendant had pled guilty based on the results of an Alcotest showing that her blood alcohol level exceeded the legal limit. The court ordered Alcotest devices recalibrated semi-annually to ensure accurate measurements. During the calibration process, simulator solutions were to be heated to 34 degrees Celsius, the generally accepted temperature for human breath; the test coordinator inserted a thermometer that produced National Institute of Standards and Technology-traceable temperature measurements into the simulator solution to ensure that it heated within 0.2 degrees of 34 degrees Celsius. Marc Dennis, a coordinator with the state’s Alcohol Drug Testing Unit, was responsible for performing calibrations of Alcotest devices in several counties. He was later charged with falsely certifying his compliance with the calibration procedures.
Defendant was notified that the results of her Alcotest were among those called into question and moved to withdraw her guilty plea. The court granted the motion and appointed a special master to determine whether the failure to test simulator solutions with a NIST-traceable temperature check undermined the scientific reliability of breath tests performed on Alcotest devices. After an evidentiary hearing, the special master concluded that the state failed to prove that the Alcotest was scientifically reliable without an NIST-traceable temperature check during calibration, crediting testimony that even a few minor errors could cause undetected miscalibration. The court adopted the special master’s report and ordered all defendants notified that Alcotest results from machines not calibrated with a NIST-traceable thermometer were inadmissible.