San Jose, CA. 865 DUI cases in which breathalyzers were used are deemed faulty.

Faulty breathalyzers used by San Jose police to arrest 865 DUI suspects could lead to drivers walking free -- even if they were drunk behind the wheel, authorities revealed Tuesday.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said it would undertake a special month-long review to determine how many of the cases it would drop because San Jose police officers used the Alco-Sensor V breathalyzer as part of their field sobriety tests. The breathalyzers -- one of the methods used by officers to determine whether to arrest DUI suspects -- may have shown incorrect readings because of a manufacturer's error that can cause condensation to build up in the tube. The devices which were also used by Palo Alto police are not usually used as evidence in court.

However, prosecutors and defense attorneys say it's a technicality that could get some suspects off the hook -- by a dropped case or reversed conviction -- even as the usual DUI suspect averages a 0.19 blood-alcohol level, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. Others who were not drunk but wrongly believed to be intoxicated because the device was faulty would see justice.

Defense attorneys said cases in which suspects blow into the device but refuse to later give a blood test are now suspect, since authorities could lose their main piece of evidence.

"If the case relies on the Alco-Sensor, we've got to bring those cases back into court and litigate," said Michele Diederichs, the attorney supervising the county public defender's misdemeanor unit, which represents DUI suspects who can't afford to hire an outside attorney. "This information casts even more doubt on the validity" of these tests.


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