20,667 Drunken-Driving Convictions Tainted by Bad Breathalyzer Test in New Jersey

On behalf of Participating Counsel, Matthew W. Reisig, Esq., I was asked to write a Brief in the New Jersey Supreme Court matter in State v. Cassidy, 235 N.J. 482 (2018), decided on November 13, 2018. The task was to persuade the Court to affirm and accept the 198-page report of the Special Master, retired Appellate Division Judge Lisa, who held that the State failed to carry its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that the Alcotest was scientifically reliable without a NIST-traceable temperature check.

In a unanimous ruling three days ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the technician’s failure to properly calibrate the breath-test machines means that 20,667 cases must be either retried, in the case of convictions, or perhaps abandoned, if they are still pending. Writing for the court in the long-awaited ruling in State v. Cassidy, Justice Walter Timpone held: ”We see no reason to question the special master’s determination.”

In an article by the New York Times, Matthew W. Reisig, Esq. noted his opinion on the effect of this landmark decision:

Matthew W. Reisig, a lawyer who defends many drunken-driving cases in the New Jersey, said that he was expecting “a hornet’s nest” in the courts in the coming months because the decision on Tuesday failed to define exactly who could challenge their convictions. The estimated number of cases affected by the tainted tests and the court’s ruling may be inaccurate, Mr. Reisig said.

“The state at some point is going to notify people, but we don’t know if they are notifying the correct people,” he said. “I have zero confidence that the state knows who the affected people are.”