Richmond Virginia DUI Lawyer Bob Battle was the first lawyer in Virginia to successfully convince a Virginia judge to allow a defense expert to examine the breath machine in a DUI case. The machine at issue in this case before Goochland County Circuit Court Judge Timothy K. Sanner is an Intoxilyzer 5000. Virginia is presently phasing out this model of machine and the Intoxilyzer 5000 in question has been retired and the new model is in use in Goochland County. The new model is known as an EC/IR II.
At issue in this case is the fact that the chopper motor on this particular machine was replaced. Alka Lohmann, former Breath Alcohol Section Chief , the representative of the Virginia Division of Forensic Science (“DFS”), testified that the state has no idea what brand of chopper motor was put into this machine. Bob Battle argued that a defense electrical engineer should be allowed to examine this machine to determine what type of motor was put in the machine and to check to see if this had any affect on the performance of the machine.
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