New DWI Decision-Miami Herald

300 Broward DUI cases could be tossed out
BY NATALIE P. McNEAL
nmcneal@MiamiHerald.com
About 300 drunk driving cases in Broward County could be thrown out, following a state appellate court ruling that improper maintenance of the alcohol breath-test machines renders the results inadmissible.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a judge’s ruling to toss out Intoxilyzer results in a DUI case because the machine had been tested with tap water instead of distilled water. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement requires that the breath-test machines use distilled water.

Defense attorneys argued that tap water may skew results. Both the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Davie police department used tap water to test the machines.

Judge Finn