Texas v. J.O.S

0.199 BLOOD TEST!!!! This makes the third Not Guilty this year for me where the blood test came into evidence and the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty. The client was pulled over on 290 for doing 85/60. He pulled over safely and timely. Three officers stated that he did not smell like alcohol. And the client denied drinking any alcohol. They gave him standard field sobriety tests on the side of the road but did not video tape it. Through cross examination I was able to show possible problems and how easy the tests are to fail. So all we had was the huge blood score. We crossed the nurse and she did ok, except that she drew the blood improperly. I then crossed the analyst, who the State flew in from her new job in Colorado. I got her to admit that her worst fear was switching vials. And that she had never done it “to her knowledge.” Client could not afford an expert, so I reviewed the 862 pages of documents they gave me. Two people in the sample batch run were 0.000. I asked her what was the likelihood that (1) she switched vials with a 0.000; (2) the client actually denied drinking and didn’t smell like alcohol; and (3) it landed in the lap of a defense attorney who knows blood testing. “Million to one” was her answer. It was the perfect storm! Also, client’s blood vial was cracked, yet not one piece of documentation on who, where, when, how or why. We couldn’t afford an expert and went straight Disconnect Defense. The jury understood that what they saw on the video at the police station and the blood draw station did not match the absurd number the State was relying upon. I crossed the expert using retrograde extrapolation to commit, that for his number to be right, the client was a 0.27 at the time of driving. That’s consuming 17 beers!! And he never asked to use the restroom once? The jury got it right. Huge reasonable doubt. Thank yall for sending him home and giving him his life back. It brought him back to his grandma and his girlfriend. Beautiful result.