The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Seven justices of the Iowa Supreme Court have heard arguments challenging whether rules for using DataMaster breath-testing machines for testing blood alcohol are proper and the tests are being properly administered by police.
“It seems only fair that if the state of Iowa is going to accuse one and convict one of a crime and take their liberty away by use of a machine that the result should be reliable and they should be accurate,” said Jack Faith, a lawyer for a man whose blood alcohol content was measured at 0.121 percent by a DataMaster test.
A district judge has granted a defense motion to suppress the evidence against Stratmeier after concluding a Plymouth County deputy had not complied with the approved procedure when administering the test.
However, Assistant State Attorney General Jean Pettinger argued the test result was reliable in seeking to reverse the district court ruling.
Pettinger also argued the state’s position for reversing a ruling in a class-action case. In that case, 17 Johnson County defendants successfully argued that evidence against them should be suppressed because prosecutors could not show that the state had approved uniform instructions for operating the DataMaster.
The Supreme Court will probably rule next year.
Pettinger said police followed instructions from the state Division of Criminal Investigation and training sessions based upon the manufacturer’s manual.
Attorney David Arthur Adams, who argued on behalf of the Johnson County defendants, said different agencies had variable DataMaster software programs and officers were receiving different training due to the lack of a standard set of rules.
“There are methods here that are questionable,” Adams said. “I don’t think the state has established what specific methods were adopted.”
For a time, Johnson County law officers relied on urine-testing kits to determine motorists’ blood-alcohol content after District Associate Judge Stephen Gerard ruled last March the DataMaster test results could not be used as evidence in drunken driving trials.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Lt. Robert Hansen said Wednesday new state instructions for operating the DataMaster breath-testing machine, which replaced the intoxilizer, have since been adopted and the device again is being used by Iowa law officers.