More breath test shenanigans

If you have been a long time follower of this blog the name Dee Wallace should ring a bell. She was the technical supervisor in charge of breath test machines in the Houston area who faked test and calibration data.

Now there's a new name to add to the Forensic Hall of Shame. Let's say hello to Marianela Martinez, late of the League City Police Department. It seems that Ms. Martinez had a contract to oversee the breath test programs in League City and several other small towns in southern Harris County and in Galveston County. It would also appear that Ms. Martinez also participated in creative maintenance of breath test machines.

Ms. Martinez was fired last month for unsatisfactory job performance. In a detailed write-up, the Chief of Police for League City, Michael Kramm, set forth a laundry list of problems with Ms. Martinez' job performance over the years. Interestingly enough, Ms. Martinez received excellent mark-ups in her annual job evaluations - even though she was doing piss poor when it came to audits of her work from the State of Texas.

According to Mr. Kramm

"Documentation from State auditors and regional supervisory staff demonstrated lengthy down time for instruments under the care and control of Martinez. Audit documentation demonstrated a pattern of poor time management, last minute inspections, poor record keeping, missing maintenance records and deficient hardware/technical knowledge on behalf of Martinez."

Ms. Martinez was afforded a great deal of latitude with respect to running the breath test program in League City. No one looked closely at DPS audits when it came time to reviewing her job performance. It wasn't until someone higher up the chain of command began looking into problems pointed out by the audits that anyone gave her performance a second thought.

In addition to her failure to maintain the breath test machines under her control, Ms. Martinez also failed to calibrate and prepare the new Intoxilyzer 9000 machines that were to be put into service in her area.

Keep in mind that the estimations from these machines were used in drunk driving prosecutions. We have no way of knowing whether any of the machines used to test those breath samples were in proper operating condition. We have no way of knowing whether they were properly maintained. And but for Ms. Martinez' bumbling inepitude with the roll out of the Intoxilyzer 9000, we might never have found out she wasn't doing the job she was supposed to be doing.

This is the problem with breath testing. These machines are placed under the control of persons who are rarely held accountable for what goes on under their watch. It's only years after a problem was discovered that we find out what went on behind the curtain.

This is the primary problem in leaving these forensic "tools" in the hands of the people who are doing the arresting. There is no accountability - until it's too late. There is a built in bias on the part of the folks who maintain these machines since they get their paychecks from the same agency that arrested the test subject in the first place.

A League City war story

Tried an assault case down in League City this afternoon (perhaps y'all remember my last experience down there). Three people testified - the alleged victim, my client and my client's mother. All three stories were different. The only thing they all agreed on was that my client and the alleged victim had an argument.

The end result was a (somewhat) typical she said-she said swearing match. The judge found my client not guilty but then proceeded to berate her, saying she thought my client did assault the alleged victim but that because she had one little doubt, she couldn't find her guilty.

While I think the judge's final decision was the correct one, I do take offense at her comments to my client afterward. The comments weren't necessary, in fact, they were mean-spirited and the judge seemed to be aggravated that anyone would dare demand their day in court.

Sitting at the bar at Gringo's

All the way down to League City I knew I was going to get a tongue-lashing from the judge at municipal court. It was 10:15 before I was able to leave the Harris County (In)justice Center for a 9:00 am docket call in League City.

The judge accused me of wasting the court's time and said I should've spoken to the prosecutor beforehand. I told the judge that I had contacted the court the day after I was hired to inform them of a felony matter in Harris County set at the same time. I also told her I spoke to the city prosecutor that same day about a continuance and that he was unopposed. I pointed out that I had filed an unopposed motion for continuance that the court refused to consider because it was filed less than 15 days prior to trial. I told the judge I had called the court the day before to inquire about my motion. After being told it hadn't been signed, I reminded the clerk of my conflict. Finally, I pointed out that I spoke to the clerk at 9:15 this morning and told her I would be late.

So what did the judge do? She reset the case - just as I had asked the court to do last week. My client was dumbfounded - she had to skip a seminar to waste her time in court this morning.

The cheese enchiladas at Gringo's are pretty good, though.

The new capital punishment

On August 1, 2008, Arturo Chavez, a 17-year old illegal immigrant and student at Clear Creek High School, was stopped by League City (TX) Police and arrested for driving without a valid Texas driver's license. He was taken to the League City police station where, according to the cops, he ran out a door and tried to climb a fence. Arturo, who stood 5'3" and weighed about 125 pounds, was beaten by four League City cops and tasered multiple times.

EMTs took Arturo to the hospital for treatment of his injuries and then returned him to League City officers for processing into the Galveston County Jail. No officers reported any injuries. At the GCJ, Arturo was placed in solitary confinement. Despite being warned that Arturo was suicidal, GCJ officials left him alone in his cell.

Three days later Arturo was dead. He had hung himself with a blanket.

It wasn't the first time that an inmate in the GCJ ended up dead. On February 6, 2008, a 24-year old Galveston man who had been picked up on municipal warrants died in custody after suffering multiple seizures.

Capital punishment is authorized in Texas for capital murder and aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14, not for driving without a license or not paying municipal traffic tickets.

Galveston County isn't the first county to kill off its inmates due to incompetence, negligence and neglect, and it won't be the last. The Harris County Jail has been investigated for over 100 inmate deaths since January 1, 2001.

While going to jail isn't a pleasant experience -- it shouldn't be a deadly experience. As no one in Austin or Washington, D.C. wants to be labled as being a defender of those in custody, the only means we have at our disposal to bring these stories to an end is to obtain judgments against those ultimately responsible for these senseless deaths.