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On Monday, Feb. 8, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office said it would be notifying people convicted of OUI between 2011 and 2018 that they may be entitled to a new trial based on unreliable breathalyzer results.
In Hampshire and Franklin counties, more than 3,100 people will be getting such notices, the DA said. Each district attorney in Massachusetts is responsible for contacting qualifying OUI convicts in their regions.
In Massachusetts, breathalyzer results used in criminal cases from 2011 to 2018 were deemed inadmissible after several criminal defendants challenged the test results’ reliability in Boston Municipal and District Court.
“If an eligible defendant chooses to challenge their conviction, they may be entitled to a new trial,” the Northwestern DA’s Office said, “at which the Commonwealth would have to provide their guilt without relying upon the breathalyzer result.”
The device that was primarily used as a breathalyzer during that time was the Alcotest 9510, which was found to be reliable. The problem was with the care and maintenance of the equipment. The annual calibration and certification methodology used by the Office of Alcohol Testing, from June 2011 through September 2014, was deficient a judge ruled.
In 2019, the calibration and certification methods were brought up to snuff, allowing breathalyzer results from 2019 onward to be used in court, the DA said.
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