Misuse of DUI machines at Hillsborough Jail?

Tampa, Florida -- When a law enforcement officer arrests someone for DUI and takes that person to the Hillsborough Orient Road Jail, we have seen there can be problems.

Wanda Sullivan, who was arrested for DUI, found that out when she was pulled from a chair and dragged across the floor. However, our 3-month investigation also shows there are problems with the way law enforcement authorities have used the breath testing machine, the Intoxilyzer 8000.

Related Story: Allegations of abuse at Hillsborough Jail

We ran a control test with DUI consultant Stephen Daniels, using the Intoxilyzer 8000. The result of the test had his blood alcohol at .000.

Then we had Daniels eat some Wonder Bread, and he blew a .033. Although still under the legal limit, Daniels was registering alcohol after only eating bread.

Next we had Daniels gargle vodka and spit it out. After that he took the test and blew .209, almost three times the legal limit.

The alcohol the machine was measuring on Daniels is what is called "mouth alcohol," not "breath alcohol." That's why the state requires a 20-minute waiting period before a test can be administered if someone vomits.

Attorney Kevin Hayslett says if alcohol from the stomach comes up into the mouth and then the person blows into the machine, the results will be inaccurate.

Hayslett claims the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office ignored that part of the law when they gave the test to a woman we have on surveillance video. The woman is given a breath test only seven minutes after she regurgitated. Then the Sheriff's office continued giving her the breath test, even after she threw up while taking it.

"The last thing you would expect them to do is have a woman -- as we have seen in the video tape -- throw up and then attempt within seconds after that, to get her to provide a breath sample, knowing full well that any breath sample that was done at that time would be tainted," Hayslett says.

This isn't the first time the accuracy of the breath testing machines and the way the Florida Department of Law Enforcement monitors them has been called in to question. Within the past year, an inspector had to be dismissed after she was caught telling other police agencies how to get around the guidelines if the machine failed the state-mandated test.

"We found that they actually fudge on the machines," says defense attorney Richard Hersch.

We showed Hersch an inspection test from Hillsborough County on July 19 2007. The inspector logs in at 8:58 and then conducts that test a 9:06. The inspector then says the inspection was not completed, because of a power failure.

So the inspector performs another test at 9:41, and then logs back in at 9:43. The FDLE says doing that is impossible; you can't inspect a machine after a power failure without re-logging in first.

"By turning it off, all of the failed inspection data didn't get written to the memory. It disappeared," Hersch explains.

That means a machine that could be out of tolerance could be used as evidence to convict you of a DUI, if you are pulled over and possibly under the legal limit.