I had a DWI case one time where my client blew a 0.15, 0.16. In New Mexico they should always take two samples from the person. When the client comes to you like that, you tell them “This is going to be an uphill battle,” and my client said, “I just didn’t have that much to drink. I don’t know where this number is coming from”. We worked the case and worked the case, and going through the machine that was used to take the sample. They use machines called Intoxilyzer 8000’s to take breath samples, and then those machines have to be calibrated and checked by the lab to ensure the machine is running correctly, and in that case it showed that it was.
Another thing that needs to be done before you run a sample is make sure that nothing has been in the driver’s mouth because something in the mouth can cause the machine to read higher than it should, and it turned out my client in that case chewed tobacco. He used the little pouches they sell of tobacco, and he had that in his mouth when he was blowing into the machine. We thought that alcohol was trapped in that little tobacco pouch like a sponge. When he blew through his mouth, the air in his mouth is moving over that tobacco, and it’s registering a much higher blood alcohol level content than was correct for the client, and the jury acquitted him. So, his record is clean.