Based on court transcripts that defense attorney Jon Saia uncovered, records kept by a blood-alcohol content machine have not been kept for three years, 10TV's Glenn McEntyre reported.

The machine, called the Datamaster, converts a person's breath into a blood-alcohol level.  In many cases, it is the final word on whether a person is guilty.

Ohio law requires the Datamaster to be tested at least once a week, McEntyre reported.

Under questioning in a drunken driving case, the Licking County sheriff's deputy who calibrates the machine was asked what he did with bad test results.

"I disregard - I discarded it," the deputy said in court transcripts.

The lawyer asked the deputy if he kept the bad test results in the county's record books.  The deputy responded that he did not keep them.

"When he was getting a bad instrument check, he was simply throwing them in the trash and kept running tests until he got a valid one," Saia said.

According to court transcripts, the deputy had tossed the bad records for the last two years.  The judge in the case refused to allow the breath test evidence to be used against the defendant, McEntyre reported.

Saia said that the same ruling should apply not only to his client's case but many others.

"It calls into question every breath test for the last two years," Saia said.  "Anyone in Licking County who has pleaded guilty to an OVI offense because they tested over the limit -- it calls into question their conviction because they may not have been at or over the legal limit.
    
Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp did not return 10TV News' calls for comment, but told the Newark Advocate that "we feel confident that all of our tests are accurate and valid.  There may have been some procedural issues that the deputy who was in charge of the machine didn't follow."

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