Jury Convicts Oxnard Driver in Crime Lab Test Case

In a test case for the court fight brewing over 300 drunk-driving cases handled by the Ventura County crime laboratory, a jury convicted an Oxnard man Tuesday of driving with an illegally high blood-alcohol level.

The jury found that Rey David Diaz was driving with a blood-alcohol level above the .08% limit on the night of April 5. The verdict came despite a judge’s ruling that the crime lab overseeing such tests had violated state laws on staffing and procedures.

The jury is to resume deliberating today on whether Diaz was actually driving drunk--the chief drunk-driving charge in the case.

Chief defense attorneys in the case could not be reached for comment on the verdict, which came late Tuesday afternoon.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin Suh declined to comment on the verdict.

The crime lab was operating without a forensic alcohol supervisor for about six months, from Nov. 16--the day that then-supervisor Norm Fort retired--until May 23, the day supervisor Dea Boehme officially took over.

The lab, which oversees breath-testing for all Ventura County police agencies--is not supposed to operate without a supervisor, but state health officials granted a 90-day license extension in December.

When that extension expired March 19, the state told the lab to stop doing the tests and overseeing the other departments’ testing until it could get a new supervisor in place. But the lab continued doing the tests, reasoning that it would be better than refusing to offer breath tests--a theoretical grounds for appeals, witnesses testified.

On April 10, the district attorney’s office issued a letter about the problems, prompting defense attorneys to flood the court with appeals of arrests, convictions and sentences in 300 drunk-driving cases.

Defense attorneys have been watching the Diaz case closely for legal ammunition in their fight to dismiss those 300 cases.

It already set one precedent that prosecutors have cited in the larger case: Municipal Judge Edward Brodie found last week that while the lab did not actually lose its license, it was violating some state laws on staffing and test procedures. Brodie told jurors they could take that into account when weighing the test results along with the other evidence.

When it reaches a full hearing, the larger case will probably include as witnesses the crime lab staff members and state Department of Health Services officials who were called to testify in the Diaz case.