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North Carolina Driving Impaired Breathalyzer Lawyers Attorneys
by
Atchuthan Sriskandarajah
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. CHARLIE TEW
SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA
March 12, 1990, Heard in the Supreme Court
June 13, 1990, Filed
Factual Background:
Defendant pled not guilty to driving while impaired and was adjudicated guilty in the district court. He appealed to the superior court, and sought to suppress the results of his blood
alcohol test
. After the motion was denied, defendant conditionally changed his plea to guilty, but reserved the right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion. The superior court found defendant guilty, but the appellate court reversed, holding that the motion to suppress should have been granted.
Issue:
Whether the trail court erred by admitting breathalyzer test results in a DWI prosecution where the inked test record pointer marked the instrument’s test card at a point between .22 and .23 on the first test?
Observation and Holding:
The court reversed the appellate court’s ruling, concluding that the legislature meant to use the term “readings” in N.C. Gen. Stat. 20-139.1(b3) consistently with the regulations it required the Commission for Health Services to promulgate. When read in pari materia with the statute’s remaining provisions, the term “readings” was intended to mean the test “results” recorded by the chemical analyst in hundredths, and
rounded
down as provided by the regulations. Therefore, defendant’s two readings did not differ greater than 0.02, even though the first test had been rounded down, thereby bringing the two tests within the necessary range for admission.
The court reversed the appellate court’s ruling, and found that the motion to suppress defendant’s blood alcohol test was properly denied by the superior court.
Disclaimer:
These summaries are provided by the SRIS Law Group. They represent the firm s unofficial views of the Justices opinions. The original opinions should be consulted for their authoritative content.
Atchuthan Sriskandarajah is a Virginia lawyer and owner of the SRIS Law Group. The SRIS Law Group has offices in Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York,
North Carolina
& California. The firm handles criminal/traffic defense, family law, immigration & bankruptcy cases.
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