Commissioner of Public Safety v. P.T.
Project Details
Project Description

In Commissioner of Public Safety v. P.T. (Washington County, Sept. 2015), Greg Young convinced the district court judge to rescind the one-year driver’s license revocation and license plate impoundment orders that resulted from his client’s DWI arrest. After the arrest, Greg’s client submitted breath samples into the police’s DataMaster (DMT) machine. The samples returned a breath alcohol volume of 0.17, over twice Minnesota’s legal limit to drive.

Greg Young successfully argued that the breath test results were unreliable. Greg presented the court with evidence that the fuel cell system of the DMT machine was turned off, limiting the machine’s ability to detect interferents. Additionally, Greg cross-examined the police officer drawing out evidence that his client, more likely than not, was experiencing a diabetic ketoacidosis episode at the time of her arrest causing the client’s breath alcohol concentration to rise due to ketone/acetone production.