HOULTON, Maine — The state’s highest court has overturned a lower court ruling that had excluded the results of a breath alcohol test in an operating-under-the-influence case from Aroostook County.
The decision in the 2013 case against Chad H. Tozier was first heard in Aroostook County Superior Court before Justice E. Allen Hunter and was argued last year before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Hunter granted Tozier’s motion to exclude the results of the Intoxilyzer test from evidence because the state failed to produce for trial an expert witness to testify about the inner workings of the machine.
According to court documents, in August 2012, a police officer certified to operate an Intoxilyzer machine tested Tozier’s breath-alcohol content, obtaining two different samples.
The machine allegedly reported Tozier’s breath alcohol level at .18. Maine’s legal limit for operating a vehicle is .08.
Tozier was charged with criminal operating under the influence, and he requested a jury trial.
Ten days before the trial, he requested that the state produce a qualified witness to testify at his trial. The state provided as that witness the officer who administered the test.
As the trial was about to begin in November 2013, Tozier filed a motion to exclude the test results from evidence, which Hunter granted, ruling that the officer was not qualified as an expert to testify as to the “appropriateness of the quality of the equipment, the chemicals or other materials involved.”
The state appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, however, arguing that the law does not require the state to produce expert testimony on the equipment in order to have the results of an Intoxilyzer test admitted into evidence.
Writing for the majority, Justice Andrew Mead wrote that the high court concluded the state was not required to offer expert testimony regarding the functioning of the breath alcohol testing equipment, as long as evidence was submitted showing that the machine bore a stamp of approval from the state Department of Health and Human Services and that materials used in operating or checking the operation of the machine also bore a statement from the manufacturer saying that they were of the quality and composition stated.
Mead also countered that the officer who administered the Intoxilyzer test was the only witness who could be cross-examined about the administration of the test and whether or not the officer may have made an error. An expert, he wrote, would have no personal knowledge of the actual administration of the test and could not testify to those points.
Justice Joseph Jabar was the lone dissenter among the justices who heard the case. He wrote in a minority opinion that at the defendant’s request, the state had to produce a witness to “testify not only as to the procedures that were followed in administering the breath test, but also as to whether the concentration of alcohol in the defendant’s blood was actually the amount reported by the person administering the test.
“In most instances, a police officer who is certified to operate an Intoxilyzer will not have sufficient expertise or training to testify as to whether the concentration of alcohol in the defendant’s blood actually corresponded to the result reported by the Intoxilyzer,” he wrote. “Thus, when the defendant requests a qualified witness, the state must produce a witness with sufficient expertise to explain how the Intoxilyzer reads breath alcohol and accurately converts that reading to a measure of alcohol in the blood. The only type of witness qualified to testify as to these matters will, of necessity, be an expert.”
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated the order and remanded the matter back to Superior Court for further proceedings.
Aroostook County Assistant District Attorney Kurt Kafferlin, who prosecuted the case, could not be reached for comment Friday.
But Aroostook County District Attorney Todd Collins, who assisted with the case, said Friday that the ruling might lead to a jury trial in the case unless another resolution is reached.
Defense Attorney Christopher Maclean of Camden, who represented Tozier, could not be reached for comment Friday.