Brian Sullivan, managing partner, and Jason Lantz, attorney, Sullivan Law Group, PLLC, recently had the rare opportunity to cross-examine one of the designers of the Draeger Alcotest 9510, Washington’s new breath test machine. Attorneys Brian Sullivan, Melissa Sullivan, and Jason Lantz have been leading a group of attorneys representing dozens of consolidated defendants charged with DUI in Snohomish County to challenge the Draeger in DUI cases. Many counties in Washington, such as Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, and Island counties, have implemented the Draeger for DUI cases.
The attorneys at Sullivan Law Group have spent hundreds of hours researching the Draeger’s design and source code and came prepared to grill one of the primary designers of the instrument. Very few attorneys can say that they had the opportunity to grill the designer of a breath test machine used in a DUI case on the stand.
And the results were outstanding. Draeger and WSP both know how important breath temperature is to a valid test. It is one of only three critical variables in breath testing. Yet, WSP chose to not implement the temperature functionality of the Draeger machine. The testimony has paved the foundation for future motions to suppress and closing arguments to a jury.
