When a police officer arrests a driver for drunk driving (DUI), the police are required by law to advise the driver that they must submit to a test to determine their blood-alcohol level. In Orange County, the officer must advise you that you can take either a blood test or a breath test. You do NOT have the right to refuse to take a test or to have your DUI Lawyer in Orange County present either before you choose or during the blood or breath test. A breath test will give the results instantly but the results of a blood test will not be available for around ten days after the arrest. The reason for the delay is that the blood sample must be transported to Orange County crime lab where a “forensic scientist” must test the blood sample. The testing is accomplished by use of a gas chromatograph.
A small amount of the blood sample taken from the person arrested for DUI is placed in a small tube. In the tube, above the blood sample, there is some air space. The compounds in the blood, including alcohol, will off-gas into this airspace. The air above the blood sample is then taken out of the tube with a needle and injected into the gas chromatograph—which looks kinda like a large microwave oven. The air sample then circulates in a tube within the gas chromatograph where the various compounds gather with like compounds. Each compound that is in the blood is then burned within the machine. The chromatograph then prints out a graph, called a chromatograph, showing a vertical and horizontal axis. The vertical axis indicates the length of time a substance burns. The vertical axis shows how intensely it burns. The area under the curve shows how much of the substance, such as alcohol, there was. Thus, the chromatograph will indicate what substance was found and the amount of the substance found. This result will be used by the District Attorney to charge you with a DUI and by the DMV to issue a license suspension after a DMV hearing. Your DUI Attorney will ask for this chromatograph once your case starts its way through the Orange County court system.
The gas chromatograph will show the blood-alcohol level and the level of other drugs found in the blood sample. For this reason, DUI Attorneys in Orange County know that a driver arrested for DUI should never opt to take a blood test if there might be any drugs, legal or illegal, in the driver’s blood. A police officer does have legal authority to require a person arrested for DUI drugs to submit to a blood test instead of a breath test if the officer can state articulable facts that indicate the driver may have used drugs instead of or in addition to alcohol.
To learn more about blood or breath testing in a DUI case, visit our website at www.EJEsquire.com or call The Law Offices Of EJ Stopyro at (949) 559-5500 for a free and confidential consultation with an experienced Orange County DUI Lawyer. We have office locations at: 1901 Newport Blvd., Suite 350, Costa Mesa, CA 92663 and 32072 Camino Capistrano, 2nd floor, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675.
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