HVAC Technician Found Not Guilty After OUI Jury Trial After Breathalyzer Reading Over .10

On Friday, September 13, 2024 a police officer in northeastern Massachusetts observed a car exit a restaurant parking lot. He followed the vehicle and observed it cross the double yellow lines into the lane of oncoming traffic. The officer saw this car nearly collide with the car on the other side of the street. He then stopped the vehicle and contacted the driver. The officer was wearing a body camera. He detected the odor of alcohol on the man. He observed glassy and bloodshot eyes. Accordingly, he asked the man to take the field sobriety tests. The officer noted that the man failed all of the field sobriety tests. He was arrested. At the station the man took the breathalyzer test and blew a .10. That is twenty-five percent higher than the legal limit of .08 percent. The man was charged with OUI, a crime under G.L. c. 90 section 24. He hired Attorney Stephen Neyman who is a well known criminal defense lawyer in Massachusetts. Notwithstanding the breathalyzer results the man opted to go to trial. It was our position that the defendant passed the field sobriety tests. We believed that the body worn camera refuted what the officer claimed to have observed. We couple that with the argument that the breathalyzer is simply a machine, subject to error. Moreover, our cross examination of the officer who administered the breath test revealed that the officer knew only how to operate the machine. He did not know how the machine converts a breath sample into a blood alcohol reading. The jury deliberated for about an hour and found our client NOT GUILTY 

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