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State reaches settlement with Intoxilyzer's maker in source code dispute
Access to the programming language for the alcohol-testing device threatened to derail drunken-driving cases.
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The state has reached a settlement with the maker of the most widely used tool by Minnesota law enforcement to test for alcohol during drunken-driving arrests, allowing those accused to have full access to the device's computer programming language.
"We are very pleased that we have given the defense attorneys everything they need to analyze the source code [programming language]," Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion said in a news release announcing the settlement, reached with the help of U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur J. Boylan.
"The settlement should finally put to rest the issue of the Intoxilyzer's reliability," Campion said. "Law enforcement needs the Intoxilyzer 5000EN to keep drunk drivers off our roads."
There were 38,699 impaired-driving incidents in Minnesota in 2007. The Intoxilyzer 5000EN was used in about 24,000 of these cases.
On April 30, the Minnesota Supreme Court, addressing pretrial appeals of two drunken-driving cases from Dakota County, said the state should hand over the source codes if the defendants who request them show that the codes could reveal deficiencies in the machine that could affect guilt or innocence. However, the state doesn't have the codes.
Prosecutors feared that thousands of drunken-driving prosecutions could be in jeopardy because test results could have been thrown out of court if the codes weren't produced.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety had already sued CMI Inc., the Kentucky-based maker of the Intoxilyzer 5000EN, in federal court to try to gain access to the codes.
CMI, which supplies state's 260 breath-testing devices, had said the information was proprietary.
Officials with CMI were not immediately available for comment.
The settlement is contingent on approval by U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank. A hearing has been scheduled in Minneapolis for June 11.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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