It was not long ago when we brought the attention of our readers to DUI issues. But with Octoberfest being celebrated this weekend in Chicago, we think that it is time to talk about DUI again; specifically about the problems of enforcing DUI violations.
Yesterday, the ABC7 I-Team covered the problem of disorder in Illinois State Police crime labs that test driver’s blood samples. The I-Team investigated a case that goes back to 2011. Four years ago, in 2011, James Kisla, while driving, struck a pedestrian who ran into traffic just in front of Kisla’s car. Regretfully, the pedestrian died as a result of the accident. A breath test was performed on Kisla. That test showed that Kisla was beyond the legal sobriety limit that is, as we previously mentioned in the blog, .08. Kisla’s lawyer, Don Ramsell, questioned the results of the test. Ramsell managed to find a 2011 Internal Audit of the Illinois State Police Laboratories and Blood Alcohol Test Inaccuracies. The Audit called for corrective actions. Ramsell showed that report to prosecutors and they did not even bring the blood test results into evidence. Why did that happen? Probably, because prosecutors were not sure that Kisla’s test results were accurate.
The I-Team investigation proves that point. The I-Team examined other lab audits that go back to 2003 and found numerous blood testing errors. The first group of errors concerned the overall organization of the labs when, for example, lab technicians switched or mislabeled test samples. The other group concerned how lab technicians actually performed those tests. In response to ABC7’s question, the Illinois State Police answered that the labs use a method in blood alcohol testing, which is “widely accepted in the scientific community,” and is based on an article published in 1988. That is more than two decades ago!
Ramsell explained that those results cannot be considered reliable because lab technicians do not perform so-called “method validations.” At the same time, according to Kevin A. Schug, who is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, the failure to appropriately validate a method makes the result scientifically unacceptable. In his article on this issue, Schug stresses that the determination of the presence of substances in a biological sample for the purpose of legal action requires the highest degree of rigor in the method. In the response to ABC7, Professor Schug confirmed that “analytical chemistry without validating your methods could affect justice.” However, State Police Director Leo Schmitz, in a written answer to ABC7, confirmed that state labs do not do any method validation studies. Accordingly, Ramsell was right by questioning the results of Kisla’s sobriety tests.
This information gives the attorneys another way for an effective DUI defense. If you have been issued a DUI, don’t hesitate to contact us here at LauraLaw for assistance.
