{"id":389543,"date":"2026-09-03T19:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389543\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T19:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:38:14","slug":"ruling-on-breathalyzer-evidence-in-jacksonville-calls-hundreds-of-dui-cases-into-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389543\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruling on Breathalyzer evidence in Jacksonville calls hundreds of DUI cases into question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">A recent ruling on a DUI case by a three-judge panel in Duval County is having far-reaching effects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The panel ruled on Aug. 12 in favor of a defense motion to suppress the breath-test results for a defendant in a DUI-related case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The judges determined that replacement O-rings on Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office breath-testing machines were mislabeled as maintenance instead of repair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">That means JSO and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Alcohol Testing Program were performing unauthorized repairs on the Intoxilyzer 8000 machines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">That ruling, <a href=\"https:\/\/jaxtoday.org\/2026\/09\/02\/dui-cases-breathalyzer-ruling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/jaxtoday.org\/2026\/09\/02\/dui-cases-breathalyzer-ruling\/\">according to News4JAX news partner Jax Today<\/a>, means 950 pending DUI cases are now under review in Northeast Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The Breathalyzer machines used at the Duval County jail are sent to FDLE for inspection once a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Criminal defense attorney David Robbins told First Coast Connect host Anne Schindler in a recent segment that FDLE was recalibrating faulty Breathalyzers and passing their inspections without notifying anyone that they had been miscalibrated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cIt affects every breath case in this circuit, and, quite frankly, it\u2019s now going to affect every breath test in the state,\u201d Robbins said on First Coast Connect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">He explained that because the FDLE wasn\u2019t keeping records, courts could reconsider cases dating as far back as 2016, when the law changed, making the FDLE no longer authorized to make repairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">According to Jax Today, FDLE was authorized again in late 2025 after legal challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">It\u2019s worth noting that even if a breath-test result is thrown out, that doesn\u2019t mean a DUI charge is automatically dropped because a case can be made on other evidence, such as bodycam footage.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent ruling on a DUI case by a three-judge panel in Duval County is having far-reaching effects.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[128660,265,5695,28,116,118,117,99],"class_list":["post-389543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-breathalyzer","tag-crime","tag-dui","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}