scottsdale police

The Arizona Supreme Court is reviewing whether blood-alcohol test results from an erroneous machine at the Scottsdale crime lab can be used as evidence against several DUI cases from 2013.

A lower court previously found the BAC results to be permissible evidence in court, allowing the defendants’ cases to move forward. However, some of the defense attorneys involved disagreed with this ruling, arguing that their clients shouldn’t be subject to the results of compromised tests from untrustworthy equipment and lab staff.

In July 2013, the lab was criticized for using defective equipment to test the BAC of those arrested on suspicion of DUI in Scottsdale. Court documents indicated that Scottsdale police and lab technicians knew the machine was running on outdated software from 2009, resulting in mislabelled and inaccurate data for as many as 50 percent of samples.

Recently, Arizona’s highest court began oral debates to decide the fate of nearly a dozen DUI cases with attorneys Joe St. Louis and Lisa Marie Martin presenting their arguments before five state Supreme Court justices.

St. Louis argued against using the results as evidence in court, saying, “we don’t want drunk drivers to go free but we don’t want people who haven’t broken the law to be convicted.”

Martin represents the state, and defended the lower court’s previous decision to proceed with the DUI cases at hand because the machine was only intermittently producing mistakes.

Despite knowing about the faulty machine, tests continued to go through the lab for use in DUI cases. As a result, it’s possible that numerous people could have been wrongly convicted of DUIs due to the incorrect tests.

This possibility hasn’t been sitting well with many because Arizona’s DUI laws are some of the harshest in the nation, with a minimum of 24 hours in jail, license suspension and intense fines for all offenders, including first time offenders.

With 29,000 DUI arrests made in 2013 alone, the percentage of potential false convictions that could have been made over the years is cause for controversy.

No decisions have been made yet, but blood samples are no longer being processed on the Scottsdale machine due to staffing issues, and instead are sent to the state DPS lab, Scottsdale Police report.

Police officers are known for protecting and serving citizens. But what happens when the actions of these individuals are called into question?

Earlier this year, the validity of case report testimony by one Scottsdale Police Sergeant, Anthony Bellissimo, was questioned, leading to his resignation. Unanswered questions about cases he was involved in over his career remain, including ongoing cases.

False Testimony

On April 7, Bellissimo was on duty when a shots-fired call was received at Jackrabbit Lounge, in the 4200 block of North Drinkwater Boulevard. According to the report, Bellissimo was to supervise officers, impound evidence and write a report at the site of the shooting.

According to the report, Bellissimo not only failed to fulfill his duties as sergeant but also provided misleading reports as to his whereabouts.

According to an internal-affairs report, when confronted with information about the shots-fired call, Bellissimo claimed he was handling a fighting call at 2:19 a.m. However, during their investigation, Scottsdale investigators pulled records that showed the fighting call came in at 2:40 a.m., 21 minutes after the shots-fired call.

In addition, Bellissimo indicated to investigators that he had interviewed an officer by phone about the call and he “distinctly remember[s] making a phone call.” Despite his claim, cell phone data shows that Bellissimo never made the phone call to another officer about the shots-fired claim.

Although Bellissimo has not been charged, the internal-affairs report concluded that, “all of [the] statements about his [Bellissimo’s] availability to respond were untrue.”

The Aftermath

Bellissimo resigned on May 16 while the Internal Affairs Unit Officers investigated the April 7 shots-fired call. The Scottsdale Police found that Bellissimo was untruthful in interviews, showed poor judgment and failed to supervise the April 7 report of shots fired near the Jackrabbit Lounge in Scottsdale, AZ.

In such cases, officers’ names are typically placed on an “integrity list” of Maricopa County police officers whose truthfulness has been challenged, said Jerry Cobb, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

Many cases handled by Bellissimo, including Arizona DUI arrests, may now be called into question due to doubts about his truthfulness.

What This Means for Defendants

Such cases illustrate the need to always protect yourself and your family with a qualified, experienced criminal defense lawyer. Knowledge of this and similar cases can help in your defense. Hiring an experienced Arizona DUI attorney is strongly advised since an Arizona DUI conviction will remain on your record permanently and will be used as a prior offense for the next seven years.

Our criminal defense team in Scottsdale has been involved in more than 15,000 DUI cases in Arizona. and we give you the benefit of our expertise when fighting your case.

Having an Arizona DUI attorney with experience means your case will be handled by DUI lawyers who know how the system works and how to best defend you against an Arizona DUI or drunk driving charge.

Please contact Corso Law Group today for a free consultation. Our criminal defense attorneys will meet with you to discuss your unique situation and help you determine the best means of action.

To schedule a free consultation, please call (480) 471-4616. Corso Law Group is located at 17470 N. Pacesetter Way Scottsdale, AZ 85255.

In Arizona, a DUI conviction is not something taken lightly when deciding punishment. If convicted of a DUI, penalties could include a minimum jail time of 24 hours, a license suspension and numerous fines.

According to the Arizona Government of Highway Safety, in 2012 there was a total of 30,433 DUI arrests. However, recent evidence shows a portion of these could be mistakenly penalized due to faulty technology. Scottsdale’s police lab is currently under fire for alleged defective equipment used to determine the blood alcohol content level of those charged with DUIs in Scottsdale.

Court documents indicate Scottsdale police have known about potential problems with the blood-testing equipment over the past few years. The police lab switched its software in 2009, however, lab technicians continued to use old software in a new blood-testing machine. These are reportedly incompatible and has potentially caused as many as 50 percent of processed blood samples to read inaccurately.

The software glitch was first recognized when lab employees noticed labeled vials with wrong names or numbers, machine failure during tests and showed repetitive blood alcohol tests of 40 people at a time which, according to Scottsdale Attorney Craig Rosenstein, “statistically is not going to happen.”

The Email Trail

Although Sgt. Mark Clark released a statement saying the Scottsdale police lab has “met or exceed[ed] the rigorous standards set by [the] American Society of Crime Lab Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board,” multiple emails between Scottsdale lab employees and their supervisors acknowledged that there was clearly a problem with a machine in the lab.

One email mentioned how the machine failed a test but was logged as having passed. Regardless of the complication, results from tests that were run on that machine were published. Another email indicated that some employees thought the machine should be taken out of service completely.

The emails also exposed at least one concerned lab employee reporting problems with a blood-testing machine to the manufacturer, who wanted to correct the “malfunctioning equipment.”

Another employee who worked directly with the equipment wrote to managers that a machine had failed its weekly autotune check but despite the failure, an entry was made in the log stating that it had “passed the check and casework was done using the instrument.”

The Aftermath

Getting charged with a DUI can have many drastic effects on someone’s life such as loss of employment and long term effects like finding a new job.

“Because this problem is just hitting the surface there is no way of knowing how many people have been affected,” said Christopher P. Corso of Corso Law Group. “We’re talking about potentially hundreds of DUI cases. It’s yet another example of why you should hire an experienced Arizona DUI lawyer to represent you in such cases.

What You Can Do

Hiring an experienced DUI attorney is always the best way to protect you and your family. A DUI conviction will remain on your record permanently and will be used as a prior offense for the next ten years. One criminal defense team in Scottsdale has worked with over 15,000 DUI cases.

Corso Law Group will give you the benefit of their expertise when fighting for your case. Having an Arizona DUI attorney with experience means your case will be handled by DUI lawyers who know how the system works and how to best defend you against an Arizona DUI or drunk driving charge.