DWI blood case defense

10 Tips on Defending the DWI blood & urine case
 By Kenneth Vercammen, Co-chair, ABA Criminal Law Committee Solo Division
  1. Make a detailed request for blood records discovery, not sending a short lazy letter “Please provide discovery…”  The following is a portion of our form discovery demands from the NJ ICLE seminar book “Handling Drug, DWI and Serious Motor Vehicle Offenses” by Ken Vercammen and John Menzel, JD.
Ex: My client is charged with DWI, which has Consequences of Magnitude.
More info at http://www.njlaws.com/dwi-blood.html
 Additional Discovery demanded by defense and expert:
1 all gas chromatograph results and notes pursuant to State vs. Weller 225 N.J. Super. 274 (Law Div.1986).  
2. All results and notes of any tests performed.
3. The operator's manual for all instruments used to test the substances, pursuant to State v Green 417 NJ Super. 190 (App. Div. 2010) and State v Ford 240 N.J. Super. 44 (App. Div. 1990). Defense requests all operating procedures, instruction manuals, test protocols, maintenance logs of the gas chromatograph or equipment used, performance evaluations, and test result printouts.
4. resume and personnel file of scientist
5. all the 911 and police calls for date of violation.
6. All video for police vehicles or other video available.
7. names and addresses of any persons whom the prosecuting attorney knows to have relevant evidence or information including a designation by the state as to which of those persons the state may call as witnesses; and their dates of birth

 2. Make a formal Demand for documents regarding Field Sobriety testing. Also make a separate request for Public records under the Open Public Records OPRA law to township clerk and police chief.

1. training materials for each any "test" usually given to individuals under suspicion of DWI including manuals, lesson plans, texts, tests, and article reprints kept by Police department.

2. Many departments rely on the NHTSA Manuals dealing with field sobriety. If your department relies on these manuals, please provide a copy of the specific manual relied on by Police department

3. Documents which set forth Police department’s policy on accommodating person’s with physical disabilities who are requested by police to perform the field sobriety, test of walk and turn

4. Documents which set forth Police department’s policy on accommodating person’s with physical disabilities who are requested by police to perform the field sobriety, test of finger to nose.

5. Documents which set forth, Police department’s policy on accommodating person’s with physical disabilities who are requested by police to perform other field sobriety tests, such as the one legged stand.