200+ DWI breath tests at issue after ‘human error’ on machines in various counties

About breath tests for suspected DWIs may have been impacted by human error the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension explained Monday Prosecutors and the Minnesota Attorney General s office will need to examine each event individually to make a determination according to BCA Superintendent Drew Evans DataMaster machines are stationed at law enforcement offices around the state used by officers to give breath tests to people suspected of driving while intoxicated and taken into custody Errors have been identified in particular when changing out a dry gas cylinder that is used for a control test Evans commented The more detailed information from Evans came after the BCA declared Friday that it had ordered all law enforcement agencies in the state to suspend usage of DataMaster instruments until they verified that gas cylinder statistics was correctly entered into each instrument It s a -minute inspection and then law enforcement agencies can return to using them Evans commented St Paul police and the sheriff s offices for Ramsey Dakota and Washington counties were among those who declared Monday they have resumed using the breath tests Roseville-based attorney Chuck Ramsay explained he discovered the issue in in Olmsted County then again in August while defending a man charged with DWI in Aitkin County On Oct the prosecutor s office dismissed the charges Throughout the state - Datamaster tests are conducted each year and there have been tests so far this year according to the BCA The state began deploying the DataMaster in with the bulk going out in Ramsay noted Nobody knows right now how several have been affected Ramsay stated adding it could reach into the thousands Initial errors were discovered in Aitkin Winona and Chippewa counties and the BCA explained they became aware on Friday of two more instruments with content entry errors related to gas cylinder installation in Hennepin and Olmsted counties It doesn t necessarily mean even if there were errors that the test results themselves were not reliable Evans revealed This is a very technical piece in this equipment The reliability of the results really do need to be examined on a case-by-case basis machines throughout state There are DataMaster instruments and about law enforcement officers certified to use them in Minnesota They go through three days of training and get a -hour refresher every two years according to the BCA The DataMaster machines are placed at various law enforcement departments and are used by multiple agencies in the geographic area A DataMaster machine is seen in the pre-booking area outside the Ramsey County jail in St Paul on Oct Mara H Gottfried Pioneer Press This has not impacted Minnesota law enforcement s ability to conduct DWI enforcement across Minnesota Evans explained A multitude of DataMaster machines have already been examined and they can go right back online because they re accurate in the testing process Evans added Related Articles Two men shot near St Paul fast food restaurants Saturday night Two-vehicle crash in Lakeville kills driver injures another BCA orders immediate statewide inspection of DWI testing instruments after information entry errors Man dies in Rush City prison cell authorities believe he fought with cell mate Without leads investigators call off search for missing -year-old Farmington horse Ramsay the criminal defense attorney explained he knows of fewer than cases where DWI charges have been dismissed by prosecutors and those cases have been outside of the metro I m unaware in the metro of any being dismissed he declared But it s not a matter of if it s a matter of how soon In Ramsay s client s scenario the state attorney general s office reversed the man s driver s license revocation The BCA agreed with me that not only was my client s test invalid but all samples that were run on that for that entire year were also invalid he mentioned Attorney People with pending cases should plead not guilty The BCA has a calibration group that manages inspects and maintains DataMasters They will now be the staff that changes out the gas cylinders Evans explained By bringing this change process into a fewer number of people we re able to eliminate particular of those errors along the way Evans commented There has also been an instance discovered of the wrong cylinder which was not provided by the BCA being installed according to the BCA Ramsay noted that the bad control isn t used to measure a driver s alcohol concentration but to ensure that readings are accurate The BCA will concede without that they lose that guarantee of accuracy he stated Ramsay suggested that anyone in Minnesota who has a pending DWI situation plead not guilty And if they have pending license revocation they should hire an attorney to challenge it he stated When it comes to past convictions that s one of the means it gets really messy he stated Who this really impacts are commercial bicycle drivers because if they get a DWI for the bulk part their career is over And that I mean that could be devastating to a family forever And those are the people that I really feel for and others who may have spent time in jail or may be in jail now Determining extent of problems Related Articles Letters Two big police officers one lost little girl Two-vehicle crash in Lakeville kills driver injures another Without leads investigators call off search for missing -year-old Farmington horse Grant teen missing since Thursday night uncovered safe Lawsuit alleges Eagan police mistook man s fatal stroke for attainable drug use As of late Monday afternoon the BCA had not heard from additional law enforcement agencies about finding any problems in their inspections Evans commented But we ll be working as part of this inspection process to determine if any others have challenges with them he commented DataMaster machines are calibrated at the BCA each year and staff has not seen the same issues with the cylinders in the past according to Evans When the BCA was first notified of the predicament we had no reason to believe it was a more widespread complication with the instrumentation he noted The bulk DWI cases are misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors that are prosecuted by city attorneys according to Ramsey County Attorney s Office spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein The felony cases prosecuted by the county attorney s office are a small subset of the overall number of DWI cases he reported and no felony cases in Ramsey County have been impacted so far Mary Divine contributed to this review