Texas v. S.S.

.13 Blood Test Client was pulled over for doing 93 in a 65 on his way home from Dallas after seeing his family for the weekend. The stopping officer couldn’t articulate what the actual clues were for the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, but was sure he saw 6/6 clues. He also said the client showed 4/4 on the One Leg Stand and arrested him. Client was seen on video performing all 3 SFSTs 30 minutes later. The DWI Task Force officer also found 6/6 clues on HGN (they always do) and then client scored 0/4 on the OLS and barely 3/8 on the Walk and Turn.

In short the client looked great on video. His blood was drawn pursuant to a warrant and the result came back 0.13. The analyst that tested the blood was freshly out of HFSC/HPD crime lab and opened a Pandora’s box about the problems with reliability and violations of SOP by the lab. However, he still wanted to state that his work was accurate.

After showing him that he took the blood out of the refrigerator for 12 hours and didn’t know the expiration date he still stood by his number. So I showed him the carton of milk I had left on my desk for 12 hours and couldn’t see the expiration date and asked him to drink it. He wouldn’t. The jury didn’t digest his result either. Thank you to the jury for using your common sense and giving this client his life back. His immigration was on the line and the client wept in open court at the Not Guilty verdict was read. Thank you for following the law and returning such a just verdict.