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By Dan Wheat, World staff writer
Tuesday - March 26, 2002
EAST WENATCHEE - So what do cops do when a driver blows a .08 legally drunk on a field breath test?
Some agencies have rigid guidelines. Others allow greater officer discretion.
The problem is that the portable breath test, which officers call the PBT, and other field sobriety tests are not foolproof, several law officers and public defense attorneys explained Monday.
The portable breath test is admissible in court to show probable cause that someone consumed alcohol, but not how much. They aren't reliable enough.
The bottom line: Officers like to have probable cause from a person's driving, demeanor or behavior, plus a number of field sobriety tests and the portable breath test.
Defense attorney Steven Woods said people are arrested on .06 and .07 portable breath test readings. He said a person in Chelan was charged with drunken driving on a .03 breath analyzer reading. He said it's rare but drunken driving can be proven, on officers' observations, when the breath analyzer is under .08.
Woods said the gaze nystagnumus test is the most accurate of the field sobriety tests, but not foolproof. He said false readings occur from neurological problems or an officer making a person move his eyes too far.
In this last trial, my client was facing the emergency lights of the police car and even the state's expert said those lights could have caused my client's eyes to jerk, Woods said.
* EXCERPT RE-PRINTED WITH PERMISSION.
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