Breath Testing Device (BAC Datamaster-same as one used in Charleston) Out of Service for Six Months
Six months after the machine went “off line” it is still out of service.
As reported in the Newark Advocate on November 2, 2008 in an article by Russ Zimmer, the BAC Datamaster breath testing device is still not in service in the Licking County, Ohio Sheriffs Office. While the sheriff's department asserts that the machine is in perfect working order, concerns about the maintenance records have left issues to be sorted out by the county prosecutor and the Ohio Department of Health officials.
The BAC Datamaster is the same breath testing device in use in South Carolina.
In court proceedings, a deputy testified that records for the machine that are required to be kept by state law were “disposed of.” The law requires the records to be kept for three years. These records indicated incidences where the device fell outside the accepted range. The machine was simply retested until it successfully measured the solution with a known value.
The lawyer challenging the failure to keep records called into question convictions aided by the BAC Datamaster for the past two years.
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20081102/NEWS01/811020302/1002
