Colorado Springs Crime Lab Botched BAC Tests

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The Associated Press is reporting that hundreds of DUI cases could be impacted by the flawed results of blood-alcohol tests coming out of an area crime lab.

According to law enforcement, at least 82 blood tests since January 2009 have registered higher blood-alcohol contents than they should have. These flawed tests were exposed as a result of internal investigations of the blood tests at the Metro Crime Lab.

As a result of these findings, more than one thousand drug tests from past cases are being retested. The new results will be sent to the county’s district attorney’s office and the Department of Revenue.

These offices will study the impact of the errors on any pertinent criminal cases and driver’s license revocation cases.

“We understand how regrettable this and we’re owning up to our own error,” said police spokesman Dave Whitlock. “We’re still getting our arms around the totality of it.”

The lab discovered the errors through its built-in checks and balances and quality assurance measures. According to Whitlock, officials do not believe that all of the tests that came out of the lab are in error.

Police are investigating whether the mistakes were a result of procedure or of human error. Changes have already been made to ensure that the tests will be more accurate in the future.

There is also an investigation underway by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations, the state’s main law enforcement agency, according to the AP.

The AP also attempted to question the district attorney’s office about how past defendants are being notified about the potential for errors in DUI cases. The office was unavailable for comment, however.

A representative of area defense attorneys raised her doubts about the process. Sandy Mullins, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, told the AP, “It puts a lot of things into question. We take a lot of these tests as fact, when in fact these are being administered by people and systems. Just like any system, they can be faulty.” Where often it’s assumed that a machine-rendered test is undeniable fact, Mullins said, “this proves that tests do lie sometimes.”