State v. Chun: A Post Script

In 2008, New Jersey’s Supreme Court concluded that the government could use the results of an Alcotest to determine the blood alcohol concentration of a suspect in a drunk driving case (DWI/DUI). That decision was riddled with a whole host of conditions. Two of those conditions required the government to make certain upgrades to the Alcotest and to establish a database that could be read by the public to track the Alcotest’s readings throughout the state. The upgrade condition was conceived to reduce the tolerance problems with the Alcotest and the database condition to determine the nature and extent of any abnormal readings, so as to allow defense attorneys to continue to test the reliability of the Alcotest.

Recently, the New Jersey Bar Association filed a motion with the court claiming that the Attorney General’s Office had failed to create the upgrades or the database.