Court Flushes Urine Test in Another DWI Case

Posted On March 30, 2010 by Charles Ramsay

As we have blogged before, urine testing is not a scientifically accepted method of determining a driver's alcohol concentration in a DUI case. Despite this fact, more police agencies are using urine testing to determine drivers' alcohol concentration.

Our law firm continues to be very successful attacking urine tests. This month prosecutors agreed to reduce numerous urine cases to lesser offenses, eliminating mandatory jail sentences. In a number of instances, the prosecutors voluntarily dismissed the DWI charges entirely.

Judges also recognize the unscientific nature of urine tests. In one case this month, the state charged my client with a Gross Misdemeanor DWI after his urine test revealed an alcohol concentration of .22. I asked the judge to throw out the urine test result. The state objected. The officer had collected the urine sample two hours and five minutes after the stop. While acknowledging this, the state claimed that it could use "retrograde extrapolation| to prove my client had an alcohol concentration over the limit within two hours. The judge disagreed.

Urine has many limitations, one of which is that it has no burn-off rate â?? as does breath and blood. At the suppression hearing, the state toxicologist admitted that no reputable scientist could use a urine test result to extrapolate one's alcohol concentration at an earlier point in time. Without the ability to tie the .22 urine test to any one point in time, the court ruled the alcohol test result irrelevant and suppressed the urine test.

With no alcohol test, the prosecutor dropped the DWI charges and my client pleaded to a careless driving. Because we had prevailed in the civil implied consent hearing, the careless was not alcohol related.

We will expose the unscientific nature of urine testing as long as police use urine testing to take away drivers' licenses and convict them of crimes. We continue to develop new ideas to attack urine and other alcohol tests. Call us immediately if you've been charged with a DWI.

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