Seattle Municipal Court (SMC) judges have denied a motion from defense to suppress breath alcohol (BAC) readings obtained from the Draeger Alcotest 9510 in a ruling issued on January 3, 2023. The Dreager Alcotest 9510 is one of several breathalyzer instruments authorized by the State Toxicologist.
According to the motion, there was a discrepancy between the method utilized by the Dreager Alcotest 9510 and the toxicologist methods of measuring intoxication, and when the toxicology department knew of these differences before publicizing them.
“The defendants challenged the admissibility of the breath alcohol tests obtained by the Draeger Alcotest 9510 instrument,” according to court documents. “Because the published method approved by the toxicologist in Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 448-16-060 differed slightly from the method used by the Draeger instrument.”
Having determined this to be an issue of citywide significance, SMC conveyed a panel consisting of Judge Catherine McDowall, Judge Andrea Chin, Judge Anita Crawford-Willis and Judge Damon Shadid to hear the motion.
According to court documents, “approximately 95 cases have been merged into one litigation. In the amalgamated cases the defendants were charged with DUI or Physical Control charges. Each defendant was submitted to a breath alcohol test using the Draeger Alcotest 9510 instrument.”
“After the discrepancy was discovered, the State Toxicologist circulated a new WAC, effective November 6, 2022, which approved the method used by the Draeger machine as a valid way to calculate the 10% of the mean requirement,” court documents continued.
The Washington State Legislature established criteria for the admissibility of a breath alcohol test in RCW 46.61.506. The purpose of these foundational requirements is to ensure that competent evidence is admitted at trial. One of the foundational criteria for admissibility of the tests is that the breath samples obtained by the testing machine fall within 10% of the mean, calculated by a method to be approved by the State Toxicologist.
With the court ruling that new Washington Administrative Code retroactively was applied before the revisions were published, and the method approved in the prior version of the WAC did not justify suppression of the breath tests
Cases consolidated for this motion will be set for status hearings on February 7, 2023.
