• 12
  • January
    2012

Taking issue with the Houston blood alcohol content testing vans...

We've blogged about this before, but further developments in this important case merit another look. In a development that could possibly lead to outright reversal of convictions in some DWI cases involving faulty blood tests and breath tests in testing vans, the Harris County District Attorney has been called to testify before a grand jury.

This is quite unusual, as Tom Abrahams reports for ABC 13 News.

"I don't know of another case where a DA has been called by a grand jury to testify in a criminal matter," says one legal analyst.

In Texas, the testing vans such as the ones at issue in Houston have been routinely used to help prosecutors win DWI convictions; those motorists pulled over for drunk driving and who refuse a breath test may be forced to a blood draw after getting a "quickie" search warrant against them, issued by an on-call judge under the so-called "no-refusal" policy.

Source: ABC 13 News, "DA Lykos subpoenaed to testify before grand jury," by Tom Abrahams, 1/6/12