{"id":1388,"date":"2017-08-24T11:31:49","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T15:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2017-08-24T11:31:49","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T15:31:49","slug":"breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/","title":{"rendered":"Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the past two years, there has been extensive litigation about the reliability of the breath test.\u00a0 Judge Brennan consolidated all issues pertaining to the accuracy of the breath test in one hearing.\u00a0 Judge Brennan rejected all challenges to the scientific reliability of the machine, but found that the Office of Alcohol Testing did not have reliability procedures to conduct the annual certification.\u00a0 As a result he presumptively excluded two years of breath testing between 2012 and September 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Some district attorneys office did not attempt to admit the results; while others, pursuant to the decision attempted to have the Office of Alcohol testing overcome the presumption of exclusion by testifying that they followed a reliability procedure at the time. \u00a0 In an article in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/news\/local_coverage\/2017\/08\/thousands_of_ouis_may_blow_away\">Boston Herald, by Bob McGovern<\/a> discusses a motion that was recently filed to be heard by Judge Brennan that could result in exclusion of thousands of breath tests.<\/p>\n<p>Following the litigation, attorneys continued to review the documents provided by the Office of Alcohol Testing to determine if all data was provided.\u00a0 Thomas Workman an expert of breath testing, reviewed the documents and discovered that the Office of Alcohol Testing did not provide all worksheets.\u00a0 Workman filed Freedom of Information Requests and discovered that all worksheets were not provided pursuant to Judge Brennan\u2019s order.\u00a0 A motion filed in Concord District Court alleged that 89% of the withheld worksheets were exculpatory. \u00a0The defense is arguing that by failing to provide the worksheets, that the Commonwealth undermined the ability of the defense to challenge the reliability of the breath test machine. \u00a0The litigation took 2 weeks of court time and was a substantial cost to tax payers. \u00a0To have evidence withheld that was ordered to be produced undermines the integrity of the Court process and litigation. \u00a0I would expect Judge Brennan to schedule an evidentiary hearing to determine why the worksheets were not produced. \u00a0This would involve further testimony by the Office of Alcohol Testing and possibly the district attorneys involved in handling the litigation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past two years, there has been extensive litigation about the reliability of the breath test.\u00a0 Judge Brennan consolidated all issues pertaining to the accuracy of the breath test in one hearing.\u00a0 Judge Brennan rejected all challenges to the scientific reliability of the machine, but found that the Office of Alcohol Testing did not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breathalyzer-testing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 24, 2017<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the past two years, there has been extensive litigation about the reliability of the breath test.\u00a0 Judge Brennan consolidated all issues pertaining to &#8212; August 24, 2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 24, 2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"For the past two years, there has been extensive litigation about the reliability of the breath test.\u00a0 Judge Brennan consolidated all issues pertaining to &#8212; August 24, 2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael DelSignore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 24, 2017","description":"For the past two years, there has been extensive litigation about the reliability of the breath test.\u00a0 Judge Brennan consolidated all issues pertaining to &#8212; August 24, 2017","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 24, 2017","twitter_description":"For the past two years, there has been extensive litigation about the reliability of the breath test.\u00a0 Judge Brennan consolidated all issues pertaining to &#8212; August 24, 2017","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael DelSignore","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael DelSignore","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f0bc58f94b3abb11fcd52cf8961c0a6e"},"headline":"Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation","datePublished":"2017-08-24T15:31:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/"},"wordCount":366,"articleSection":["Breathalyzer Testing"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/breath-test-cases-massachusetts-get-dismissed-result-serious-discovery-violation\/","name":"Breath Test cases in Massachusetts could get dismissed as a result of serious discovery violation &#8212; 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