State v. Friedrich, 681 So. 2d 1157 (Fla. App. 5th Dist. 1996)
Sep 12, 1996OUTCOME: In favor of the defendant
In State v. Friedrich, the court found that if a person tests at or under .082 on a “breath test” administered by police on the Intoxilyzer 5000 that person should be assumed to be under the legal limi ... t of intoxication and the scores would be inadmissible in trial. By establishing the fact that there are potential variations in alcohol content of the stock solution it was shown that scores could read inaccurately high by an amount of .003. This potential mistake combined with the inability of the field officer to determine the ethanol-to-water ratio (which should be .1215) allows for the .003 deviation in the scores. This mistake could also lead to inaccurately low scores, however it was found that if an error is made it must be in favor of the defendant and field officers cannot assume inaccuracy in a score of .077 to .079.
