San Diego DUI Blood Tests
may be attacked in your San Diego drunk driving case and/or
DMV hearing. Here’s San Diego California DUI attorney
Rick Mueller's top tactical illustrations:
1. Fermentation - Increase
in BAC by the neoformation of alcohol in blood tube after
blood draw and before analysis, as a result of insufficient
sodium fluoride preservative or a delay between blood draw
and actual analysis.
San Diego area crime laboratories
routinely wait a number of days or weeks - before testing
blood for alcohol levels. Due to lack of proper funding,
these cheaper tubes normally have an insufficient level
of sodium fluoride preservative.
2. Blood clotting or coagulating.
3. Hemolysis - In relation to BAC, hemolysis may alter the
blood matrix & increase BAC.
Hemolysis destroys erythrocytes, causes unreliable ABO/Rh
testing.
Hemolysis can be caused by intensive shaking of the blood
tube and/or presence of hypertonic salts such as Sodium
Fluoride.
4. Contamination (from an outside source – as a result
of swabbing skin, e.g. with Zephiran containing 2% ethyl
alcohol).
5. Lack of entire chain of
custody and/or wrong blood specimen.
6. Improper blood draw or
problem with administration of test.
7. Lack of compliance with
proper standards or California Code of Regulations, Title
17 (e.g. failure to maintain integrity of sample from collection
to storage to analysis to reporting, or failure to mix blood
sample with anticoagulant or preservative).
8. Unqualified analyst tests
the blood.
9. A more appropriate prosecution
expert fails to testify at trial.
10. Blood test report or record
not made at or near time of analysis, or method of preparation,
source of information or time of preparation report untrustworthy
or sufficiently suspect.
11. Incompetent or unauthorized
blood technician draws blood.
