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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Thousands of drunk driving cases in Massachusetts could be dismissed after the state's highest court said on Wednesday that faulty breathalyzers could have been at play.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that 27,000 people that pleaded guilty or were convicted after trial from June 1, 2011, through April 18, 2019, where breath test results were included in evidence, are entitled to "a conclusive presumption of egregious government misconduct."
The high court said that results from Alcotest 9510 devices, a breathalyzer test, could have been faulty since they may not have been properly calibrated.
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The state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled that defendants can proceed in motions to withdraw their guilty pleas and motions for new trials.
In January 2017, a hearing took place where a judge heard expert testimony concerning the Alcotest 9510 device's reliability from its initial deployment in 2011 through 2014. The judge found that while the breath test was able to produce scientifically reliable results, it ""did not produce scientifically reliable BAC results," because of the absence of written protocols to be used in calibrating and certifying the operation of the device."
The judge determined that the procedures used to prepare the devices to work properly were only shared by "word of mouth around the lab." Since there was no formal written process to calibrate the devices in between uses, the breath test results were deemed unreliable.
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