ToxLab Accreditation – Is the Party Over?
Let’s face it – for the last 2 years, DUI attorneys have been living the high life in King and other counties due to a major scandal at the Washington State Tox Lab resulting in scores of breath tests being inadmissible. You remember the story? Perjury, lies, deception, a cover-up? The kind of thing that Perry Mason loves!
In King County, in fact, the judges threw out ALL breath tests, finding that they couldn’t trust the crime lab at all.
That worm may have just turned, as the Washington State Patrol Tox Lab has become one of only FOUR labs in the world accredited by the American Society of Crime Lab Directors.
“The Washington State Patrol (WSP) received word today that the breath alcohol program in its Toxicology Lab Division has received international accreditation from the American Society of Crime Lab Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB.)
DUI NewsFlash – Prior ACTUALLY means PRIOR.
Who would have thought it? As DUI sentences are enhanced based on the number of “prior” convictions you as a defendant have, the definition of the word “prior” has always been in some dispute. In fact, I’ve seen it argued that because the statute defines “prior” as “within seven years”…that “within” gives you seven years on EITHER side of the DUI – making a 14 year window.
Thank heavens, the Supreme Court has finally told us that prior means prior.
From The Seattle Weekly:
