The "not blowing hard enough" to try and trick a breathalyzer is a myth. The issue isn't PSI, but VOLUME. And they are two totally different things as you know.
Can You Trick a Breathalyzer?
No, they didn't say he was swerving. They said he was straddling the line. And just because 2 sworn officers say something doesn't mean a damn thing. They do need the video evidence to corroborate their story.
I disagree. The traffic violation is one thing. The DUI and "Refusal to Take a Chemical Test" is another.
Nebraska is an "implied consent" state. And contrary to Pat68, Nebraska CAN ask you to take a breathalyzer or blood test PRIOR to your arrest. However, you can refuse either before or after and they cannot force you, though it does result in suspension of your license.
Nebraska DWI/DUI: Refusal to Take a Blood, Breath or Urine Test | drivinglaws.org
Nebraska Legislature
Nebraska Legislature
I noticed that the police report said that the standard FSTs were given at the scene, though no mention of pass or fail of those tests are in the report. I question what they mean by "adequate breath sample" at the station. The office models are typically top of the line and require the least amount of volume of exhaled CO2 to work.
Now, Dennard could have been belligerent by the time they got to the station and just flat out refused because he knew he passed the FSTs.
But, as you said, we can only hope it works out.
I am a breathalyzer virgin (I've only undergone the roadside sobriety test). I have zero personal experience to draw upon. However, I would suspect you are right about 'tricking' the breathalyzer.......actually I should say I hope you are right. Because if force of exhale has a direct effect on the BAC reading (which suggests to me it is also a variable effect), IMHO the test itself is more suspect than it should be. 'You're not exhaling hard enough' is such a relative/judgment thing.
The link for cheating the breathalyzer you put up didn't work for me (fyi, it took me to a page rated by WOT as not entirely safe of spyware). However I did find an Arizona attorney's blog on the subject of tricking the breathalyzer.
The Secret to Fooling a Breathalyzer Test: Vary Your Breathing Pattern and Avoid a DUI or DWI - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com
While I could not find a specific reference on this webpage to trying/testing the method of 'don't exhale very hard', it did speak fairly widely on various tests they tried to see what could change the BAC reading. It did say breathing techniques were the only thing they found to have an effect. Yet, interestingly, making the test read a higher BAC was almost always the result. Here is what it said about getting a lower BAC "Hyperventilating for 20 seconds was the only technique to result in a lowered BAC". Of course I can't say this issue is addressed because it had no specific reference to the exhale force. Yet I'll temporarily assume that is the case considering they tried so many techniques to trick it that they would have mentioned 'exhale with as minimum force as possible to lower BAC'.
So what we have is two tests disregarded by the policeman. This suggests this was about disagreeing (for whatever his reasons) with the results. Further, someone mentioned Dennard failed the roadside test. But I also recall reading somewhere that, it was claimed, he passed the roadside test. To me what happened during the roadside test part is huge. Because if didn't pass it, the policeman seems to be on solid ground regarding disregarding the test results. But if he did pass the roadside test (whatever passing is equivalent to), considering two breathalyzer tests were passed, this case deserves close inspection for its validity. I know some cop cars carry cameras (from watching TV
). I hope the roadside test was in its field of view. IMHO if it shows him performing it well, this case becomes weak.
Look, it's completely unfair to paint all police with one broad brush. Within a group of 1000 people, you will get varying types of good or bad behavior depending on the person. I have always believed that most police have a strong sense of fairness underneath it all. However, at least where I grew up but I suspect most everywhere, when you attack a cop (in this instance a punch), you are now very much 'noted' (and that is putting it nicely) among the police brotherhood. So if he passed the roadside test too, I now begin to suspect an element of this 'noting' is involved.
Edit: I did one more search and found this: Because holding your breath will increase the BAC reading while hyperventilating before blowing will lower BAC, Cops want you to take a deep breath and blow hard (I interpret his suggestion to mean the police want to get a bit of the 'holding your breath' effect). He also point blank says the test "do not require the person to blow hard". He claims the requirements of the test are about a 7 second uninterrupted exhale....with a "normal" exhale....like into a straw. IF that is correct, to me that suggests the force of exhale needed for a true reading is not big at all. It also suggests police want to achieve the upper level of the reading (with the proviso that of course they do..... as well as what I was reading is from a lawyer). It also suggests that if Dennard was truly not blowing hard enough, he was REALLY not blowing much at all.
Which begs the question, in this day of technology, they can't put a sensor on there that measures the force of exhale which will cause the reading to say 'insufficient air flow"?
