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Woman: It turns out the breathalyzers DC police have been using for years
are inaccurate. That's according to DC's attorney general, and hundreds of
DWI convictions were based on that data. Lindsey Mastis tells us how those
faulty tests will affect those cases now.
Lindsey: The ten breathalyzers district police used since fall, 2008, were
calibrated wrong. That means blood alcohol levels read 20 to 30 percent
higher.
Peter: The Intoxilyzers were not accurate.
Lindsey: How did it happen? DC's attorney general, Peter Nichols, does not
blame the single officer in charge of making the bad calibrations.
Peter: There's a real question about the instructions provided by the
manufacturer, and we intend to pursue that.
Lindsey: Nichols said he reviewed 1,100 cases. Four hundred may have been
impacted by the breathalyzer test, but only a few are being reopened.
Peter: The total number of cases that may be directly affected, where we're
going to take immediate action, are the 11 where there was a trial.
David: For him to say that only 400 have been affected, just based on his
own information, makes no sense.
Lindsey: David Benowitz represents hundreds of plaintiffs in DWI cases.
David: We kept getting clients who would say I only had two drinks over a
period of four hours, and we're coming up with breathalyzer scores that
were way over what they should have been.
Lindsey: He says his firm is putting together a class action lawsuit.
David: I think there's going to be, again, a host of motions filed
requesting new trials and/or that convictions just be thrown out.
Lindsey: Nichols says he's contacting convicted drivers and their
attorneys, letting them know what went wrong. But what to do next is up to
them. In Washington, I'm Lindsey Mastis, 9News now.
Woman: DC Attorney General Nichols says that city has replaced its
breathalyzer machines and is now developing stricter standards for testing.