4,000 Michigan Alcohol Tests Incorrectly Analyzed: State Police

About 4,000 alcohol cases over a four-month period were incorrectly analyzed by the Michigan State Police Forensics Science Division, but that doesn’t mean those charged are off the hook.

The state police alerted prosecutors in July of the “calibration error,” and the agency is re-testing the cases, according to a letter released by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Monday. In Wayne County, 402 cases were affected, 89 of them prosecuted by Worthy’s staff.

The State Police said amended results were off by a hair and won’t affect about half of the cases where the blood-alcohol content was near the state’s threshold for drunken driving of 0.08 percent, according to media reports.

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The mistakes occurred between December 2015 and April 2016.

Though the Michigan State Police downplayed the error, some defense attorneys question what else the agency may have gotten wrong.

“If they're admitting the calibration was off and then at the same time saying these results were not affected by that, I believe that's a falsehood," attorney Kevin Bessant, who handles DUI cases, told WJBK-TV. "I guarantee you there have been some people behind this that have been convicted and have a DUI on their record or may have even been sent to jail or prison for an error that's not their fault.”

Luther Glenn, president pro tem of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, told the Detroit Free Press the new results should be verified by a third party.

Of the 2,000 cases, BACs were lowered in 66 cases, and only 18 worked out in the defendants’ favor. They had been charged under Michigan’s “super drunk law,” which sets higher penalties for individuals whose BAC is .17 or higher. In those cases, the BAC should have been a bit lower, according to the WJBK report.

Bessant said all of the affected DUI cases should be reopened and examined.

The discrepancies were discovered during a routine review, MSP spokeswoman Shannon Banner said.

“This error has not occurred before, and additional procedures and safeguards were put in place to prevent it from occurring again,” she said.

In a statement, Worthy said her office is committed to working cooperatively with the MSP “to resolve any issues that arise.”

Questions about Wayne County cases should be directed to the prosecutor’s office Appellate Division at (313) 224-5790.

Image credit: houstondwiPhotos mp via Flickr / Creative Commons