Q: How is it that after 1 hour and 19 minutes my BAC did not change? Should I get a liver enzyme blood test?
The body metabolizes alcohol at the rate of about 0.005 per twenty minutes. A different reading from the field test to the facility test should be shown. I am a healthy male 131 lb. and waited and hour before driving. If the equipment gave a false reading and scientifical the level should have decreased is this a valid plea of dismissal? Also, they took my PA license, which they are not allowed to, holding me hostage in NC, without valid ID I am unable to travel back home to PA, via bus, train, plane or any other reasonable method.
A: Every body metabolizes alcohol differently based on a plethora of factors. The field or portable breath test is highly unreliable. Even the machine used at the station has a .02 +/- variance. But even if you were given the benefit of a .02 variance in your favor, you are still a full point above the legal limit and by your own admission at a point where you should have been lower than when you were driving - that in and of itself is enough for you to be convicted. However, in North Carolina there are two ways to be convicted. Even if you are successful in getting the breath test suppressed and not admitted into evidence if the state can proof you were appreciably impaired (noticeably) and they can do that with the stopping officers testimony alone, you can be convicted that way as well. So there is likely no dismissal to be had in that area. As to your PA license, I already told you - hire a lawyer and get it back.
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